The main tank, brimful with ideas. Enjoy them, discuss them, take them. - Of course, this is also the #1 place for new submissions!
By spuuut
#12098
In Australia we have a big water shortage problem with lots of great ideas about desalination and grey-water recycling flying around, but the only way to collect and re-use shower water is to put buckets in the shower with you or start replumbing. Theres got to be a better plan.

I'm thinking along the lines of a 10cm high X 90cm X 90cm plastic storage box that fits in the shower recess with a nice teak top to stand on and an inbuilt hand top. Bilge pump to empty the water as required. Overflow would still go down the usual drain and I estimate it could hold up to 80 litres or 10 buckets worth. Grey water can be used on plants and shouldn't be stored so the plan would require it to be self draining too.
By Rishi
#12137
spuuut wrote:In Australia we have a big water shortage problem with lots of great ideas about desalination and grey-water recycling flying around, but the only way to collect and re-use shower water is to put buckets in the shower with you or start replumbing. Theres got to be a better plan.

I'm thinking along the lines of a 10cm high X 90cm X 90cm plastic storage box that fits in the shower recess with a nice teak top to stand on and an inbuilt hand top. Bilge pump to empty the water as required. Overflow would still go down the usual drain and I estimate it could hold up to 80 litres or 10 buckets worth. Grey water can be used on plants and shouldn't be stored so the plan would require it to be self draining too.
The problem is that what with detergents, cosmetics residue, scraped off skin cells, and body fluids added to the shower drained water, the grey water will require considerable processing before it can be safely used even for irrigation. The purpose can be served by minimising the quantity of water used. About 80 to 90% of shower water does not come in contact with the body at all.

Why not design a hi tech sponge bath? A disposable foam piece attached to a low wattage ultrasonic transducer with a built-in water circulation plumbing should do the job. Soap can be dispensed out of a hand operated spray bottle. Lithotripsy uses ultrasound to disintegrate kidney stones so this application is quite feasible.

Alternatively, one can get into a water tight suit, which is slightly larger and circulate water inside the suit.

rishi
By spuuut
#12141
Hi Rishi, I love the ultrasonic and 'water-suit' ideas !
I was looking/ trying to introduce something new without changing the established habits and surroundings.
In Australia we have an ongoing campaign by the government to hand out free water saving shower nozzles as well as low voltage light bulbs and rebates for installing water tanks, so the general useage of water is not ignored by the population.
If 80-90% of shower water doesnt come in contact with the body then why is grey water such a 'no-no' for watering the garden?
We are encouraged to use shower water on our gardens ( not crops), and the only proviso is that grey water is not stored.
Anyway, I thought I had a great idea?!

Ah well, back to the drawing board.....



Rishi wrote:
spuuut wrote:In Australia we have a big water shortage problem with lots of great ideas about desalination and grey-water recycling flying around, but the only way to collect and re-use shower water is to put buckets in the shower with you or start replumbing. Theres got to be a better plan.

I'm thinking along the lines of a 10cm high X 90cm X 90cm plastic storage box that fits in the shower recess with a nice teak top to stand on and an inbuilt hand top. Bilge pump to empty the water as required. Overflow would still go down the usual drain and I estimate it could hold up to 80 litres or 10 buckets worth. Grey water can be used on plants and shouldn't be stored so the plan would require it to be self draining too.
The problem is that what with detergents, cosmetics residue, scraped off skin cells, and body fluids added to the shower drained water, the grey water will require considerable processing before it can be safely used even for irrigation. The purpose can be served by minimising the quantity of water used. About 80 to 90% of shower water does not come in contact with the body at all.

Why not design a hi tech sponge bath? A disposable foam piece attached to a low wattage ultrasonic transducer with a built-in water circulation plumbing should do the job. Soap can be dispensed out of a hand operated spray bottle. Lithotripsy uses ultrasound to disintegrate kidney stones so this application is quite feasible.

Alternatively, one can get into a water tight suit, which is slightly larger and circulate water inside the suit.

rishi
By mekarls
#12187
I dont quite understand what you mean. Do you mean to store the water in the empty space under the shower?
If so, it makes more sense it divert the grey water directly onto the garden or lawn.
Why store it?- my garden barely gets enouth water in winter(I live in aus too)
In response to Rishi, you make it sound like the water is toxic.
This isn`t the case, it needs no treatment for use on garden or lawns, as it gets diluted in the shower anyway and average shampoo isn`t that potent.
Body fluids??????? (use a toilet for that) ;-)
By spuuut
#12190
Hi Mekarls, The idea is for a shower that has a hob or small raised wall at the entrance to the shower.
This hob is usually about 6 in high so I was planning to build a box that sat in the bottom of the shower recess and was only as high as the hob.

The volume of a box that size would hold about 70/80 litres, quite a lot I thought!
In Sydney they tell us thet grey water cant be stored so the box would have a slow leak as well as an overflow tube.
If you want more info email me..... spuuut@gmail.com
mekarls wrote:I dont quite understand what you mean. Do you mean to store the water in the empty space under the shower?
If so, it makes more sense it divert the grey water directly onto the garden or lawn.
Why store it?- my garden barely gets enouth water in winter(I live in aus too)
In response to Rishi, you make it sound like the water is toxic.
This isn`t the case, it needs no treatment for use on garden or lawns, as it gets diluted in the shower anyway and average shampoo isn`t that potent.
Body fluids??????? (use a toilet for that) ;-)
By Rishi
#12192
mekarls wrote:I
In response to Rishi, you make it sound like the water is toxic.
This isn`t the case, it needs no treatment for use on garden or lawns, as it gets diluted in the shower anyway and average shampoo isn`t that potent.
Body fluids??????? (use a toilet for that) ;-)
Not Toxic, but contaminated by micro-organisms. Re body fluids: like all tanks, old bladders tend to dribble. Shampoos can promote algal and slime growth, which can choke the plumbing.

I am all for water recycling. In my house very little rain water reaches the drain. Almost all is absorbed into the ground.

rishi
By InventR
#12207
Actually Spuut, the best way to save water is by using a bucket and mug.
People have perfected the art in developing countries. Its quite simple actually - you cannot getter wetter than wet so optmize the water u need to get u wet, lather with soap and then optimize the amount you need to get it off by slow pouring.
Could be more environmentally satisfying than a nice powerful shower :-b
By Rishi
#12210
InventR wrote:Actually Spuut, the best way to save water is by using a bucket and mug.
People have perfected the art in developing countries. Its quite simple actually - you cannot getter wetter than wet so optmize the water u need to get u wet, lather with soap and then optimize the amount you need to get it off by slow pouring.
Could be more environmentally satisfying than a nice powerful shower :-b
That is quite right. That is how most of us bathe in India. All you need is less tahn 4 US gallons of water to have a satisfying complete bath. Double that for an elaborate oil massage, shampoo bath. Most hotels in India also provide a bucket and a mug in the bath rooms.

rishi
By spuuut
#12211
Hi Rishi and InventR,
That whole bucket and mug thing seems bizarre when compared to the stand-up 'waterfall shower' technique common in Western society. The ' wetter than wet' comment did get me thinking that maybe its a matter of distributing the water over the body rather than the amount.
Quality rather than quantity, because I know that theres no way in hell that my kids are going to shower with a cup, they have just been too pampered for too long. And the wife is in there for 15 minutes, just doing her hair and mucking around, as far as I can see.
But a very low volume, hign pressure, shower, with multiple heads, kinda like a carwash, could be an answer.
I saw a public spa ( Onsen), in Japan where they use thermal spring water to bathe, so its endless but the key was that the shower it came from 10 shower heads. It felt more effective even tho it wasnt 10 times the normal amount of water.
So maybe a more evenly distributed amount of water could save water.
But back to the issue of recycling shower water, the common habit of putting buckets in the shower could be dangerous, the buckets get a bit slimy if you dont empty them immediately and it just looks ugly.

Rishi wrote:
InventR wrote:Actually Spuut, the best way to save water is by using a bucket and mug.
People have perfected the art in developing countries. Its quite simple actually - you cannot getter wetter than wet so optmize the water u need to get u wet, lather with soap and then optimize the amount you need to get it off by slow pouring.
Could be more environmentally satisfying than a nice powerful shower :-b
That is quite right. That is how most of us bathe in India. All you need is less tahn 4 US gallons of water to have a satisfying complete bath. Double that for an elaborate oil massage, shampoo bath. Most hotels in India also provide a bucket and a mug in the bath rooms.

rishi
By L.Malone
#14037
I saw a show one time about NASA recycling all their water (as hauling water in to space is expensive). I understand they just have some major filtration-reverse-osmosis-magic-box thingy that can turn any Grey water, urine, shower water, whatever back into drinkable pure water.

If the price came down on that, or someone figures how they did it and could do it cheap this would be million-dollar money making mountain!!

With water shortages here on earth we could really use something like this in the private sector.

We would just have to get used to the idea that our drinking water had already passed through our systems before. HA!
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