Steve_D wrote:Maybe if you use lots of electricity or gas to make your own distilled water, as jht-union suggested (good idea! there are also easy plans for solar water distillers on the Internet)-- Anyway, if you use a lot of electricity or gas heating water to evaporate and distill it, maybe your parents will think that it would really be more practical and cheaper to buy distilled water.
And if your parents read this-- Hello, parents of fish30! Thank you for supporting your son's interest in Venus Flytraps! Unfortunately, tap and stream water is probably not good for the plant (too many dissolved solids), so please consider collecting rainwater from the roof in a barrel, or buying distilled water, which is usually very cheap. Alternatively, you could purchase a cheap TDS (total dissolved solids) meter online and measure the water from your tap, to see if it would be safe to use on the plants. Thank you.
I agree with you Steve_D!, the electricity or gas that it takes to make distilled water at home is actually represented by an increase in electricity (depending on the kind of stove you have) an electric stove uses about 23 and 48 kilowatt hours per month in 1 hour, which is the same as $2/$5 dollars increase in your parents account bill in electricity >Parents of Fish30!<, while distilled water from a store is less than $1 dollar. Fish30 is your turn to ask them whether they prefer to pay an increase in their bills of $2/$5 dollars to make distilled water at home, or pay less than $1 dollar to buy distilled water at a grocery store.
Please put your parents to read this, i bet they wouldn't like the increase in their bills of 2/5 dollars right?
For the ones reading about this, only use this method in case you run out of water, to wash out the soil(if things got in such as chlorine) , if you choose to use it for your whole life then i guess you will be willing to pay 2/5 dollars in your bills.
other than that this is actually a great method to make distilled water for carnivorous plants!!!!!=D
Bye and good luck with your VFT's!!=D