We recognize that many of our posts detailing interesting developments in the energy field have to do with green technologies. But this is due to the fact that most of the exciting developments taking place in a number of different industries are related to conservation. The last century was the century of new possibilities, while this century is shaping up to look like the century of improvement–finding ways to improve the inventions that have become of our everyday lives.
However, you might not have expected the next item in your home to experience a revolution would be… your shower.
As part of NASA’s “Journey to Mars” project, industrial designer Mehrdad Mahdjoubi worked on figuring out how to allow for our water-hungry hygienic habits on the red planet. As anyone who has seen the recent film The Martian knows, water is in short supply on Mars. But the next-generation of astronauts probably don’t want to spend months or years feeling grimy. And given the 140 to 249 million miles separating Mars and Earth, it’s a bit too pricey to ship wet-naps and other products that can serve as alternatives to bathing. So any ideal solution would require allowing for bathing the old-fashioned way, while cutting way down on the consumption on water, as conventional low-flow showers use about 7.5 liters of water per minute.
After some careful examination, Mahdjoubi hit upon the seemingly obvious solution: reuse the shower water. The system works by capturing water as it flows down the drain, running it through a filtration system that removes particulates, microbes, and other contaminates, and then routes the water back through the shower head. This process saves a lot of water. Water consumption is cut by anywhere from 80 to 95 percent, with a ten minute shower using about 5 liters of water, less than a typical shower consumes in one minute. And for those who cringe at the idea of showering using their own recycled water, according to a study Mahdjoubi, water that has passed through the filtration system is cleaner than when it first comes out of the tap.
Mahdjoubi quickly realized that the technology could be just as useful on the blue planet as it would be on the red planet, and starting developing a high-tech shower for terrestrial use through his company Orbital Systems. The big advantage of the Orbital Systems shower for Earth-based users is that it not only cuts water consumption, but it also drastically lowers energy costs. The reason for this is because, while the filtration system removes waste products from the water, it doesn’t remove the heat. You’re able to enjoy a practically endless hot shower, while cutting energy costs by about 80%. According to the site’s online calculator, a household in Calgary that takes four 10 minute showers per day, and pays the current electricity rate per KWh (there is no option to account for gas-powered water heaters) see an energy savings of about $667 per year. In addition, such a household would save approximately 211,700 liters of water per year (a bit of math indicates that the company’s calculator assumes that a household is using a shower head that uses about 16 liters per minute, which is typical of older and high pressure shower heads).
So what’s the catch for super space shower? There’s always a catch.
Well… the shower isn’t cheap. In fact, it’s pretty pricey: about US$5,000. Secondly, the filtration uses two capsules, a micro capsule and a nano capsule, that have to be replaced regularly. The micro capsule costs $25 and can handle somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 liters of water. The nano capsule costs $100 and has a lifespan of between 50,000 and 100,000 liters of water.
Our hypothetical household described above would run about 235,200 liters of water through the system in the course of a year. Assuming that all capsules lasted for their maximum possible lifespan, the yearly cost of the consumable capsules would amount to about $431. This would result in a yearly savings of $236. Given the initial cost of $5,000, this means that you would start to see an overall cost savings after about… 21 years.
Clearly, the technology needs some time to mature and for costs to come down. You won’t be seeing these space age showers in a bathroom near you anytime soon. But this shows the potential that the future holds. Anyone who has paid attention to technology developments over the past few years knows that this year’s luxury tech is next year’s Walmart offering.
