Question:
Does anyone know how the consumer versions of the UV water purifiers such asthose now sold in Home Depot are set up? Do they just irradiate the waterwith UV-C or is there more going on.

Answer: I've never seen the ones at Home Depot, but Ibelong to a sailing club on Saratoga Lake here in NY and wedraw our drinking water from the lake. It goes through asediment filter and then a charcoal filter and then a UVunit that does just what you suggest - the water isirradiated by germicidal lamps. I also did some work for acompany that makes large "medium pressure" Hg lamps forwater purification. I never saw the complete water treatmentsystem, but it was my understanding that the water wassimply irradiated by the lamps, which may actually producemore UV B than UV C.