Problem:
People love to take showers; not merely for the act of cleaning but based on the overall experience. It relaxes and reenergizes. However, water is not the cheapest of goods to waste, while an overuse has negative environmental consequences.
Solution:
Assuming that people take the first 1-5 minutes to actually clean themselves with shampoo and body wash and the rest to “relax,” the water thereafter should be “clean.” Therefore, if one could somehow reuse and reheat this particular water, one could extend the shower experience by minutes while decreasing the waterbill. The idea is to create a shower with two different drainages – the first for the “dirty water” that includes the shampoo etc and the other for the “clean water;” both drainages can be opened and closed separately through an automated process or manually. The drainage with the dirty water would function normally, whereas the other one would lead to a separate, individual water tank where the water would be reheated and reintroduced into the system and possibly filtered. In addition to several aspects, one of the problems is to always have the right amount of water in the water tank and to reheat it in time. Mechanism that could be used could be related to the ancient Egyptian/modern waterclock systems. Another aspect to keep in mind is how the water will be reintroduced into the circuit; through for instance an additional shower head or through combining the initial water line with this additional one. The biggest question might be focused on the right mix of “new” and “old” water to always enable a steady pressurized flow.
The Idea Library 