I’ve read following article on lowtechmagazine.com a while ago: Mist Showers: Sustainable Decadence?
I’m someone who showers quite a lot (sometimes up to twice daily), especially in humid summer weather. Usually, it’s one warm one with a bit of soap, to get rid of dust, smells/ sweat, chemicals and dirt, and to sleep better, and then sometimes a quick cold shower in the morning without any surfactants, especially when I’ve sweat a lot in the night.
According to the article, showering often takes up to a few hundred liters of warm water in some cases, which is super inefficient to heat up. Reducing the water usage would also extremely reduce energy consumption A LOT.
In my case, I don’t shower long, don’t have the lever opened completely, and don’t like (too) warm showers anyway. Still, I found the concept of spray showers very interesting, and I’m thinking about building one for myself. Someone has to do the first steps, right?
Does anybody here already have one, and wants to show their experience with it?
I also have a few questions:
- Was it hard to build?
- Do I have to consider anything, especially regarding safety and leaks (high pressure), clogged nozzles, and cleaning?
- How does the experience of showering with them feel like? Do you still get as clean as with a regular shower head, even without soap?
- How do guests react to it? Do they like it?
Thanks a lot! :)
Another option is to turn the water off in between steps if you don’t already. So turn it off when you lather up, wash your hair, etc and only use water to rinse off after each step. It helps reduce how much you use by only having the water on for a short time overall. With a lot of showerhead attachments you can turn the water off right there so you don’t have to fiddle with the temperature controls every time.
I have friends with one of those valves on their shower, and it’s really easy to use. One thing I wonder about is how it effects things down the line. They have a septic tank, but I’m also thinking of greywater systems for watering plants or whatever.
Could the concentration of soap in the water interphere with things?
I personally wouldn’t use greywater for plants since it’s a mixture or oils, skin, hair, and soap/shampoo. Not without treating and filtering it beforehand. Greywater always smells far more foul than blackwater in my experience.