So you want to make your shower greener? Did you know showering is the second largest energy cost in most households and 22-48 percent of the energy used to heat a shower is lost in storing warm water?
Luckily, you won’t have to grow plants in your shower… introducing a water recycling shower! It looks and feels like an ordinary shower but incorporates a recirculation system that automatically cleans, filters and pasteurizes your shower water, using 70% less water and 70% less energy!
The recycling shower captures water you have already used in a reservoir, likely in the base of the shower. The water is then filtered in a component called a hydrocyclone, which uses similar technology to a Dyson vacuum cleaner, and spins the water around to separate out any heavier particles or materials. The 70% of the water that survives this filtering mechanism is pasteurized to kill any bacteria and redirected back into the shower head. The whole real-time, recycling process takes a mere 25 seconds. Since you are recirculating water which is already warm, energy costs are further reduced over heating cold mains water.
The shower is still under development but is expected to be on sale by the end of 2012 in Australia, the USA and throughout Europe. Prices are not finalized, but it will cost more to purchase than conventional showers. However, the recycling shower will cost less to install than a conventional shower, will reduce the demand on your hot water system by up to 50% and should save an average family of 4 about $937 every year. This means that on average payback will be less than 3 years and can be as little as 9 months.
The technology inventor is Peter Brewir. CINTEP is the Australian company developing the water recycling shower.
Links:
Dr. Tony G. Reames 