Household

In nature, the most common way of Ozone creation is through lightning discharges. The fresh and clean smell that can be felt after a lightning storm or a rain shower is actually freshly created ozone. But, not many people know that ozone can be artificially made, even in household conditions. One (and probably the best) process for this is called corona discharge (electrical discharge) and can be performed with small ozone generators adjusted to household use. Simply explained, this process emulates the natural occurring ozone creation.

Diverse applications of ozone created in household conditions

Water purification

Most typical application for a household ozonator is processing drinking water. It can either be used to disinfect and clean water, which is to be consumed after ozone disintegrates, or can drink the ozonated water directly after being treated with ozone. For the first application this is considered to be one of the most effective ways to get your water chemically clean and ready for consumption. Thousands of municipal water treatment facilities round the world are using ozone for water treatment, with so far no case of fatality. On the other side,  use of chlorine proved to have sometimes an adverse effect on human health. The second type of ozone used in water treatment is more complex but it can offer additional positive effects to your body. So, in this case the point is to drink straight away water that has been infused with ozone. Remember, ozone is highly volatile.

Odour Removal

Among potential uses for odor removal, ozone is mentioned to be effective in: reduction of smoke odor, shoes deodorization, kitchen odour removal, as well as fire-smoke odor removal. But odor removal is probably the most controversial application area of ozone. This is due to its potentially adverse effect on human’s health. Therefore it’s important if you apply ozone for this purpose to make sure you pay attention to its concentration in the air. If you use an ozone generator for odor removal, you should make sure to leave the room treated with ozone at that moment. You must be very cautious here, since it is said that inhaling ozone can cause chest pain, shortness of breath, throat irritation and coughing. Long term exposure can lead to serious and permanent lung damage. This is also applicable to animals. The gas itself is highly unstable and will disappear not long after the ozone “production” is stopped. It transforms into oxygen, so you should be able afterwards to breathe fresh air. But the list of problems goes on. The next potential problem may be the fact that in the process of reacting with chemicals indoors (depending on the furniture materials and interior decoration). Their ozone can produce other chemicals that themselves can be irritating and corrosive. To recap: if you want to be on the safe side, it’s better to skip this home application area of ozone in your house.

Food sanitation

You can use your household water ozone generator (or shortly ozonator) for effective food sanitation. This process is applicable for different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Here is how it is done: pour the tap water into a glass or ceramic bowl (never use plastic with ozonated water) sink the diffuser tube of the ozonator into the water and leave the water ozonator on for some time. The process will result in bubbles in the water, but at the end of the process, you should be able to see a kind of residue on the water surface. This is what was actually on the surface of your fruits when you exposed it to ozonated water. One more tip – use cold water, as ozone disintegrates faster in a hot environment: the longer it stays in the bowl with fruits the better disinfection effect is. Of course this whole process should last up to 10 -20 minutes. Again, the above written lines are based on my experience with treating ozone for food sanitation.