England is projected to face a water supply shortfall of 4 billion litres daily by
2050, mostly due to population growth and increasing climate-driven
droughts and flooding. The Environment Act 2021 mandates significant
water usage reductions, targeting a decrease for households from the
current 144 litres per person/day to 110, and a 15% reduction for businesses.
Enhancing water efficiency in showers is crucial, given their high water
consumption, energy use and associated carbon emissions.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Water consumption in 290 showers was covertly monitored for 39 weeks,
capturing 86,421 showering events. Increased water pressure was strongly
associated with reduced water use - an effect that can be amplified even
further by installing smart timers to inform users of their shower duration.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Consider higher water pressure settings in showers to reduce water usage.
Additionally, the use of shower smart timers wi
Thats in essence how low-flow showerheads are remotely tolerable, by increasing the pressure. Here's another tip: Start installing recirculating loops, so hot water is only ever a few seconds...
Thats in essence how low-flow showerheads are remotely tolerable, by increasing the pressure.
Here's another tip: Start installing recirculating loops, so hot water is only ever a few seconds away. Eliminates a lot of waste.
In case you’re referring to a point of use water heater instead of the tankless, central water heater that vord mentioned in a sibling comment, I’d add that heat pump water heaters are more than...
In case you’re referring to a point of use water heater instead of the tankless, central water heater that vord mentioned in a sibling comment, I’d add that heat pump water heaters are more than 100% efficient, since they move heat from the air (typically) into your water, making the air colder. Gas/electric heaters need to make all that extra heat themselves from scratch, which takes a lot more energy. So even if you lose energy in the recirc loop, it’s not that much by comparison.
You can do some math though if you’re interested — it should be pretty straightforward to see how much energy is in your demand loop based on the volume of water + it’s heat vs. your ambient air temp, then compare that to a heat pump water heater and a tankless system.
Tankless is only better with gas under lower usage situations. Hybrid electric heat pump water heaters are the way to go. The estimated annual cost for mine is < $130 annually. The payback time...
Tankless is only better with gas under lower usage situations. Hybrid electric heat pump water heaters are the way to go. The estimated annual cost for mine is < $130 annually. The payback time for the price premium over a regular water heater is less than like 5 years.
I had a tankless electric that was installed in the home I bought. Used about 80A of 240V while it's running. And doesn't solve the 'water waiting to get to you' problem.
Generally, the idea is you put the circulator pump on a timer so it only runs between like when you wake up and an hour before bed, and ideally it's temperature activated so it only runs when the temp drops below say 95F. And since it's dumping the still-warm water back in the tank it's not like it's heating from tap cold again.
The idea here is that you're sacrificing a bit of energy usage to conserve water. That's going to be an important tradeoff as freshwater becomes more scarce.
In regards to water scarcity, I think that we will probably need to change our bathing habits rather than installIng a bunch of technological workarounds. Showering is a luxury, but we are so...
In regards to water scarcity, I think that we will probably need to change our bathing habits rather than installIng a bunch of technological workarounds. Showering is a luxury, but we are so accustomed to it that we don’t register it as such anymore. Switching to mist showers or other forms of bathing might be a better solution.
But in the UK we do not have water scarcity, we just have a combination of old infrastructure that cannot cope with climate change patterns of rainfall, and terrible infrastructure that combines...
In regards to water scarcity
But in the UK we do not have water scarcity, we just have a combination of old infrastructure that cannot cope with climate change patterns of rainfall, and terrible infrastructure that combines storm-overflow with sewage and dumps raw sewage into rivers and seas.
We could fix our infrastructure so it copes better with fewer but heavier rainfall events, but we have privatised water companies who don't show much interest in this, and we currently have a government that does not believe in using taxes to build public infrastructure.
We could force all new build housing to include soak aways and rain gardens and water-butts, but we don't. We could provide subsidised water-butts to anyone who wants one, but we don't. We could force any home-owner who wants to pave over their garden to include slow drainage, but we don't. We could force new industrial and commercial building to include similar features that slow the release of heavy rainfall into the sewers, but we don't.
There were some interesting facts given about Leuven and their efforts to increase the water soakaway potential of urban surfaces, you might be interested in it. From "The city of Leuven in...
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of living in Bath, UK, where there is a spectacular green roundabout called The Circus with a huge plane tree growing in the middle of it. I then moved to New York for a while, and was shocked at how hostile the environment was (granted, my experience there was MUCH more limited, and I was in poorer areas, because I was (am) broke) to nature and urban relaxation (by that, I mean I often had to look for a while to find somewhere to sit down in the street and have lunch - benches seemed few and far between in Manhattan, and what "parks" there were were sort of lots owned by private entities made available for public use under certain conditions.
I suppose where I'm going with all of this is that we need lots of surface area integrated into cities that are capable of soaking away rainfall, and Bath seemed closer to that goal than New York.
Couple thoughts on showering habits, and how energy might be better spent (assuming we can’t do everything at once): some regions discount agricultural water rates enough that farms are...
Couple thoughts on showering habits, and how energy might be better spent (assuming we can’t do everything at once):
some regions discount agricultural water rates enough that farms are disincentivized from investing into more efficient watering systems. Switching that around so that we subsidize system improvements but charge a higher water rate is occasionally dramatically more impactful than decreasing residential water consumption.
not sure if the UK is anything like NA, but lawn maintenance is a huge component of residential water consumption. Planting more native and drought resistant plants is also a very efficient investment of resources.
grey water plumbing (eg recycling sink or laundry water) effectively diverts waste streams so that they can be used in place of irrigation water, which when done at scale, dramatically reduces overall water consumption.
and yeah at the end of that optimization process it might make sense to bathe differently (using wands and intermittent switches would likely be more acceptable to many than going to a mister, however). Speaking for myself, I’d probably prefer a sponge bath to installing new fixtures and whatnot.
Oh for sure all that other stuff should be done first. But we are talking about a hypothetical situation where I would assume that kind of work has been enacted first, or at least the lawn and...
Oh for sure all that other stuff should be done first. But we are talking about a hypothetical situation where I would assume that kind of work has been enacted first, or at least the lawn and agricultural changes.
It certainly can be! There can be a similar concern with microplastics, too. Typically, grey water systems come with a diverter that can select between the garden and your sewer/septic line — this...
It certainly can be! There can be a similar concern with microplastics, too. Typically, grey water systems come with a diverter that can select between the garden and your sewer/septic line — this is also useful when, for example, running a load of diapers through the laundry. Most of the time it’s enough to use cleaning products that are explicitly marked as grey water safe, however.
Overall: many options require a change in behaviour in order to be most effective. Since people are often resistant to change, those options should probably be deprioritized, since we need to make slower cultural shifts — instead of quicker, technological ones — in order for them to take effect.
I'm confused by what you mean about increasing the pressure. I'm currently a 3rd year mechanic engineering student, taking fluid mechanics right now, and from my understanding is that mass flow...
I'm confused by what you mean about increasing the pressure. I'm currently a 3rd year mechanic engineering student, taking fluid mechanics right now, and from my understanding is that mass flow rate must be conserved (conservation of mass). So the flow rate out of the shower head is dependent on the construction of the pipes, elevation, and initial flow rate supplied to the home.
The possible ways to increase flow rate is either decreasing the pressure difference by lowering the elevation of the shower head, installing a pump in series, or increasing the city's supply flow rate. Changing a shower head that increases the flow velocity ( by decreasing nozzle area) shouldnt increase the pressure.
Idk, I'm still learning. I could be wrong or I could be misunderstanding "pressure" for fluid velocity. I mean, higher velocity= higher force, and taken over an area ( your body) is higher pressure in a mechanical sense.
...low-flow showerheads use less water flow (GPM) at greater pressure (PSI) to encourage shorter-duration showers, since people perceive pressure as a proxy for flow and will otherwise shower for...
...low-flow showerheads use less water flow (GPM) at greater pressure (PSI) to encourage shorter-duration showers, since people perceive pressure as a proxy for flow and will otherwise shower for longer durations to account for reduced flow...
...flow rate is typically modulated by a diaphragm in the showerhead (which can be removed for full-flow showers, natch!) and pressure modulated by the spray pattern through which that flow rate is directed...
...there comes a point at which that perceptual tradeoff no longer obscures the reduced efficacy of lesser flow rates, and people take longer showers to compensate, hence the end-user hack of removing flow-restriction diaphragms...
Or even better; the mist shower The only rational way to take a shower. (Tldr: basicaly a mist sprayer hooked up to a DIY pressurised hot water container, enables you to take comforyable shower...
Or even better; the mist shower
The only rational way to take a shower.
(Tldr: basicaly a mist sprayer hooked up to a DIY pressurised hot water container, enables you to take comforyable shower with only 2 litres of water which also means less energy because water is expensive to heat.)
Fascinating, nice link. And as a baldie, one of the downsides mentioned (long hair) is no concern. It'd have to be packaged much more nicely than the photos there of plastic tubing and hosepipe...
Fascinating, nice link. And as a baldie, one of the downsides mentioned (long hair) is no concern. It'd have to be packaged much more nicely than the photos there of plastic tubing and hosepipe accessories, but that can't be too hard, and the savings are undeniable and significant.
I think this is the product mentioned later in the article. Edit: although at the "luxurious" 10 mist nozzles and a rather high price, savings might not be undeniable... Army showers are still the...
I thinkthis is the product mentioned later in the article.
Edit: although at the "luxurious" 10 mist nozzles and a rather high price, savings might not be undeniable... Army showers are still the easiest way to cut shower water and heat costs, without cutting the shower.
Here is their summary:
Thats in essence how low-flow showerheads are remotely tolerable, by increasing the pressure.
Here's another tip: Start installing recirculating loops, so hot water is only ever a few seconds away. Eliminates a lot of waste.
In case you’re referring to a point of use water heater instead of the tankless, central water heater that vord mentioned in a sibling comment, I’d add that heat pump water heaters are more than 100% efficient, since they move heat from the air (typically) into your water, making the air colder. Gas/electric heaters need to make all that extra heat themselves from scratch, which takes a lot more energy. So even if you lose energy in the recirc loop, it’s not that much by comparison.
You can do some math though if you’re interested — it should be pretty straightforward to see how much energy is in your demand loop based on the volume of water + it’s heat vs. your ambient air temp, then compare that to a heat pump water heater and a tankless system.
Tankless is only better with gas under lower usage situations. Hybrid electric heat pump water heaters are the way to go. The estimated annual cost for mine is < $130 annually. The payback time for the price premium over a regular water heater is less than like 5 years.
I had a tankless electric that was installed in the home I bought. Used about 80A of 240V while it's running. And doesn't solve the 'water waiting to get to you' problem.
Generally, the idea is you put the circulator pump on a timer so it only runs between like when you wake up and an hour before bed, and ideally it's temperature activated so it only runs when the temp drops below say 95F. And since it's dumping the still-warm water back in the tank it's not like it's heating from tap cold again.
The idea here is that you're sacrificing a bit of energy usage to conserve water. That's going to be an important tradeoff as freshwater becomes more scarce.
In regards to water scarcity, I think that we will probably need to change our bathing habits rather than installIng a bunch of technological workarounds. Showering is a luxury, but we are so accustomed to it that we don’t register it as such anymore. Switching to mist showers or other forms of bathing might be a better solution.
But in the UK we do not have water scarcity, we just have a combination of old infrastructure that cannot cope with climate change patterns of rainfall, and terrible infrastructure that combines storm-overflow with sewage and dumps raw sewage into rivers and seas.
Steve Mold has some nice explanation of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJLKhsLx18
We could fix our infrastructure so it copes better with fewer but heavier rainfall events, but we have privatised water companies who don't show much interest in this, and we currently have a government that does not believe in using taxes to build public infrastructure.
We could force all new build housing to include soak aways and rain gardens and water-butts, but we don't. We could provide subsidised water-butts to anyone who wants one, but we don't. We could force any home-owner who wants to pave over their garden to include slow drainage, but we don't. We could force new industrial and commercial building to include similar features that slow the release of heavy rainfall into the sewers, but we don't.
There were some interesting facts given about Leuven and their efforts to increase the water soakaway potential of urban surfaces, you might be interested in it. From "The city of Leuven in Belgium says it is embracing depaving – or "ontharden" – in a big way." onwards, although I enjoyed the whole article.
A few years ago, I had the pleasure of living in Bath, UK, where there is a spectacular green roundabout called The Circus with a huge plane tree growing in the middle of it. I then moved to New York for a while, and was shocked at how hostile the environment was (granted, my experience there was MUCH more limited, and I was in poorer areas, because I was (am) broke) to nature and urban relaxation (by that, I mean I often had to look for a while to find somewhere to sit down in the street and have lunch - benches seemed few and far between in Manhattan, and what "parks" there were were sort of lots owned by private entities made available for public use under certain conditions.
I suppose where I'm going with all of this is that we need lots of surface area integrated into cities that are capable of soaking away rainfall, and Bath seemed closer to that goal than New York.
*edit: formatting
Couple thoughts on showering habits, and how energy might be better spent (assuming we can’t do everything at once):
Oh for sure all that other stuff should be done first. But we are talking about a hypothetical situation where I would assume that kind of work has been enacted first, or at least the lawn and agricultural changes.
(By “we” I mean “I”)
From a position of ignorance, isn't the soap/detergent (and softener, if used) a problem for plants?
It certainly can be! There can be a similar concern with microplastics, too. Typically, grey water systems come with a diverter that can select between the garden and your sewer/septic line — this is also useful when, for example, running a load of diapers through the laundry. Most of the time it’s enough to use cleaning products that are explicitly marked as grey water safe, however.
Overall: many options require a change in behaviour in order to be most effective. Since people are often resistant to change, those options should probably be deprioritized, since we need to make slower cultural shifts — instead of quicker, technological ones — in order for them to take effect.
I’d also add that on-demand recirc exists! Ie instead of running the tap, you hit a button and wait for it to chime that the water is heated.
I'm confused by what you mean about increasing the pressure. I'm currently a 3rd year mechanic engineering student, taking fluid mechanics right now, and from my understanding is that mass flow rate must be conserved (conservation of mass). So the flow rate out of the shower head is dependent on the construction of the pipes, elevation, and initial flow rate supplied to the home.
The possible ways to increase flow rate is either decreasing the pressure difference by lowering the elevation of the shower head, installing a pump in series, or increasing the city's supply flow rate. Changing a shower head that increases the flow velocity ( by decreasing nozzle area) shouldnt increase the pressure.
Idk, I'm still learning. I could be wrong or I could be misunderstanding "pressure" for fluid velocity. I mean, higher velocity= higher force, and taken over an area ( your body) is higher pressure in a mechanical sense.
...low-flow showerheads use less water flow (GPM) at greater pressure (PSI) to encourage shorter-duration showers, since people perceive pressure as a proxy for flow and will otherwise shower for longer durations to account for reduced flow...
...flow rate is typically modulated by a diaphragm in the showerhead (which can be removed for full-flow showers, natch!) and pressure modulated by the spray pattern through which that flow rate is directed...
...there comes a point at which that perceptual tradeoff no longer obscures the reduced efficacy of lesser flow rates, and people take longer showers to compensate, hence the end-user hack of removing flow-restriction diaphragms...
Or even better; the mist shower
The only rational way to take a shower.
(Tldr: basicaly a mist sprayer hooked up to a DIY pressurised hot water container, enables you to take comforyable shower with only 2 litres of water which also means less energy because water is expensive to heat.)
Fascinating, nice link. And as a baldie, one of the downsides mentioned (long hair) is no concern. It'd have to be packaged much more nicely than the photos there of plastic tubing and hosepipe accessories, but that can't be too hard, and the savings are undeniable and significant.
I think this is the product mentioned later in the article.
Edit: although at the "luxurious" 10 mist nozzles and a rather high price, savings might not be undeniable... Army showers are still the easiest way to cut shower water and heat costs, without cutting the shower.