A new clearwell reservoir gave Bend, Oregon an additional 2.23 MG of water capacity. But summertime brought thermal stratification and short-circuiting, making the tank’s chlorine disinfection effectiveness too low for comfort.
"Contact time was down to 30 minutes," reported Chris Brelje. So Bend installed a SolarBee® solar-powered water circulator inside the tank, placing the intake hose on the reservoir floor, directly between the inlet and outlet pipes.
The results were spectacular. SolarBee’s steady, complete, mixing action increased contact time by almost 150% — to 80 minutes. Short-circuiting, thermal stratification and stagnation were virtually eliminated. A tracer study, conducted independently by the city, and CFD modeling confirmed it all. Brelje says, "We get effective total mixing for high quality water and fast recovery in the event of chlorine loss. All this without using any grid energy!"