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Tangentially related entry conservation-wise. I disabled our shower by forcing the taps shut with spanner, the tap washers I prefer are ok for this. Attached

Tangentially related entry conservation-wise. I disabled our shower by forcing the taps shut with spanner, the tap washers I prefer are ok for this. Attached a shower head hose to the bath tap, so now all we have is a shower head you have to hold and mostly sit or squat to use it. This has eliminated certain individuals from emptying the hot water system while washing their hair, and my own tendency to use a fair bit of hot water while standing in the shower. Bit of a hack, YMMV.

8note 4y ago
What are the actual savings though? Vs alternatives like using a flash boiler, or convincing your government to reduce the water that the agriculture industry can use, or adding a timer on the shower?
- TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
  Halved our water heating bill. I don't care about water usage, it's extremely cheap here and highly recyclable. That's why I framed my comment with the energy conservation context.
  - shapefrog 4y ago
    A shower heat recovery system would be better, which seems like such low hanging energy saving I am unsure why it isnt more of a thing.
    - brewsmithy 4y ago
      There are a couple reasons waste heat recovery has not been adopted in the US anyway. The designs up to this point have been adaptations of industrial designs, not specific designs for residential use.
    - pja 4y ago
      A neighbour has one of these. What surprised me was that it didn’t bother (as far as I could see) pulling the heat out of the waste water - it was setup to pull the heat out of the air in the bathroom. I guess this makes at least some sense though? A sizable proportion of the heat from shower water must go into water vapour that evaporates into the air as the droplets fall from shower head to floor drain. If you go into an unventilated room where someone has had a shower & you’ll find the air both very warm & very damp! Using a heat recovery system like this also means you don’t need to pull cold dry air into the bathroom from outside in order to avoid condensation problems - the heat recovery also pulls the water out of the air - so it saves a considerable amount of energy that way too. Whether these are enough to offset the installation cost I don’t know.
      - shapefrog 4y ago
        The ones I designed in my head, that it turns out exist in the real world, exchange heat from the drain water to warm the cold water flowing to the shower, reducing the usage of hot water (https://zypho.uk/ https://zypho.uk/ for example - turns your 10 deg C cold flow to 20 C from the 40C waste flow) In winter one would like the hot humid air from the bathroom to be heat exchanged and heat dumped back into the property. In summer perhaps feed the input airflow for a water heat pump and again dump out the humid air. Either way, we leave a lot of efficieny the table.
        theluketaylor 4y ago
        Drain heat recovery is quite common here in Canada and mandatory in a few jurisdictions for new builds. https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/categories/building-materials/plumbing/water-heaters/drain-water-heat-recovery.html https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/categories/building-materia... As for the hot humid bathroom air, that also exists in the form of ERV (energy recovery ventilators). For well sealed houses you route all the exhaust and intake for the home to one place where there is a heat exchanger to minimize the losses from getting fresh air into the house.
      - SuoDuanDao 4y ago
        there's probably also the benefit that condensing the water out of a post-shower bathroom will dehydrate the air, reducing mold/rot issues in the house.
pestatije 4y ago
Misery loves company...i'm sure you also share those savings with certain individuals?

8note 4y ago

What are the actual savings though? Vs alternatives like using a flash boiler, or convincing your government to reduce the water that the agriculture industry can use, or adding a timer on the shower?

TheSpiceIsLife 4y ago
Halved our water heating bill. I don't care about water usage, it's extremely cheap here and highly recyclable. That's why I framed my comment with the energy conservation context.
- shapefrog 4y ago
  A shower heat recovery system would be better, which seems like such low hanging energy saving I am unsure why it isnt more of a thing.
  - brewsmithy 4y ago
    There are a couple reasons waste heat recovery has not been adopted in the US anyway. The designs up to this point have been adaptations of industrial designs, not specific designs for residential use.
  - pja 4y ago
    A neighbour has one of these. What surprised me was that it didn’t bother (as far as I could see) pulling the heat out of the waste water - it was setup to pull the heat out of the air in the bathroom. I guess this makes at least some sense though? A sizable proportion of the heat from shower water must go into water vapour that evaporates into the air as the droplets fall from shower head to floor drain. If you go into an unventilated room where someone has had a shower & you’ll find the air both very warm & very damp! Using a heat recovery system like this also means you don’t need to pull cold dry air into the bathroom from outside in order to avoid condensation problems - the heat recovery also pulls the water out of the air - so it saves a considerable amount of energy that way too. Whether these are enough to offset the installation cost I don’t know.
    - shapefrog 4y ago
      The ones I designed in my head, that it turns out exist in the real world, exchange heat from the drain water to warm the cold water flowing to the shower, reducing the usage of hot water (https://zypho.uk/ https://zypho.uk/ for example - turns your 10 deg C cold flow to 20 C from the 40C waste flow) In winter one would like the hot humid air from the bathroom to be heat exchanged and heat dumped back into the property. In summer perhaps feed the input airflow for a water heat pump and again dump out the humid air. Either way, we leave a lot of efficieny the table.
      - theluketaylor 4y ago
        Drain heat recovery is quite common here in Canada and mandatory in a few jurisdictions for new builds. https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/categories/building-materials/plumbing/water-heaters/drain-water-heat-recovery.html https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/categories/building-materia... As for the hot humid bathroom air, that also exists in the form of ERV (energy recovery ventilators). For well sealed houses you route all the exhaust and intake for the home to one place where there is a heat exchanger to minimize the losses from getting fresh air into the house.
    - SuoDuanDao 4y ago
      there's probably also the benefit that condensing the water out of a post-shower bathroom will dehydrate the air, reducing mold/rot issues in the house.

pestatije 4y ago

Misery loves company...i'm sure you also share those savings with certain individuals?