A system for your whole house is designed to perform several stages of filtering before the hot and cold water leaves your tap

1. Home Water Filter Systems -
What Choices Do I Have?

2. Apart from using a standard worktop
filter to help clean your drinking water,
there are other types available that do
the filtering without you even knowing
they are there. These discrete systems
connect direct to your water supply and
do their work before reaching your tap
so you can guarantee that every
mouthful will be pure, clean, filtered
water.

3. A system for your whole house is designed to
perform several stages of filtering before the hot
and cold water leaves your tap. A first filter will
remove sediment, bacteria and common
minerals such as lead, mercury or asbestos that
are not usually needed in drinking water from
your taps. This essentially does the same job as
a counter top filter jug. Additional filters can
remove rust from your system, keeping it in top
condition and sometimes additional filters are
added to remove other chemicals such as
chlorine, where it is present in the local water
supply.

4. These filter systems are very convenient and
once installed, perform very well, with filters
only needing to be changed every 6 months or
so. The draw back is that they are expensive to
install and require a high initial outlay to
implement.
As an alternative for your entire home, a point
of use system can be installed to one or more
outlets, typically a sink faucet in the kitchen.
These handy systems are great for selected areas
of the home. Why would you need water filtered
for your shower, for example, when the real
benefit would be seen in the kitchen.

5. With a point of use water filter system, the
connection is made between the water inlet pipe
and the faucet, forcing the water through a
number of filters before it gets to your glass.
These filters can range from simple, cheap water
filtering processes to more complex multi filter
systems, sometimes using up to 5 filters to
achieve the desired level of processing.

6. Similar to the whole house models, the filters
are designed to remove trace chemicals and
elements from your water before drinking.
Depending on the area of the country you live,
they can also be enhanced to handle additional
chemicals as required. For example, you may
wish to add a filter to improve the hard water in
your area. Some point of use systems allow you
to daisy chain different filters together to
achieve the exact blend of filters for your home.

7. Choosing the right type of solution for your
home can be tricky if you are not sure which
one to go for. If you are more concerned about
removing chemicals such as iron to reduce rust
in your system, then a whole house version is
the right choice for you. Those of you who are
looking to use cleaner water for drinking and
cooking will be happier with a point of use
system as they are designed only for a single tap
and are much cheaper to install and maintain. If
you are not looking to perform an installation,
the only other option you have is to continue
using a filter jug, or use a refrigerator with a
built-in water dispenser with a filter.

8. Resources:
http://filterpurehome.com
http://ezinearticles.com/?Home-Water-
Filter-Systems---What-Choices-Do-I-Have?&
id=7308707

9. Thank you for
reading!