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Comment by pmontra | Hacker News Reader

Half a liter in a few hours is way less than a cyclist needs. This is renewable and a bottle isn't but I can pack much more water in the volume of the device and get other water when I stop. If I can't find water maybe I'm in bigger troubles than half a liter can save me from (in a desert, really?). It's not worth it.

However, put a bigger device on a car or on a boat and that can be useful.

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>Half a liter in a few hours is way less than a cyclist needs.

I guess you can use it to top up then. e.g. Bring 1 litre instead of the 2 & rely on this to cover the shortfall.

>It's not worth it.

Not yet. Cutting edge near prototype stuff rarely is "worth it".

I'd imagine the rate at which the water can be collected can increase with more development of the product. Sure, there's a limit at which you're taking all the moisture out of the air, but I'm sure there's more than enough to fill a bottle over the course of an hour of riding.

Where my curiosity lies is in energy consumption. There's a power button on it obviously, so how much power does it use? I'm not an expert in thermodynamics/rates of condensation but I know my dehumidifier is a freakin power hog and it's doing exactly the same thing as this. My guess is that power consumption is the biggest hurdle here.

Products such as these already exist and produce around 30-75 liters/day [1].

[1] http://www.water-gen.com/product-water-generator.html and

until you realize that the drag created by the larger device actually costs more in energy to create the water than other sources.

im curious if this device on your bike would cause you to burn more water than what it produces

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