Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Essence of Blogging

Turn Until Temperature of Water SuitsImage by Michael Cornelius via Flickr

I have had enough of my shower. I know that many of the things we've seen in Science Fiction over the years are not practicable. Nobody thinks a hover car that folds into a briefcase is going to happen anytime soon. But I think that we can do better than the shower technology we have right now.

Why can't I set a dial to a temperature and then press "on" and have the shower be the temperature I want?

I mean, I don't think right now I could tell you what the temperature I want is, but the trial and error, turn it up, turn it down, wait for the water to change temperature is just stupid. Not just stupid, but also wasteful. Shouldn't it be more than possible to have the water recirculate until the temperature matches a thermostat? Right now you turn it on, and then you have to let it run to see what it is, and then you turn it up or down, and then you check again, and then you turn it up or down, and eventually it gets to the spot you're looking for and then you get in. It's not like you can trickle it up to the right temp though because for most showers the flow volume and the temperature are interconnected.

This is just stupid. I bet if I do an online search I will find the thing: a thermostat controlled shower valve. I also bet it's like $300, when the standard valving is like $40; and I bet if I get the thing I would have to re-tile part of my tub to install it - if I can install it (there's be electrical and plumbing in one package - anyone else hear "ZAP" in their head?)

Even if it is there I bet there isn't one with a recirculating circuit. Maybe someone could get on that. Then maybe we could get someone working on a plumbing system that takes water from the shower drain, runs it through a filter and then uses it to flush toilets, maybe even something that also incorporates a rain collection system. I'm not in the home improvement business, but if I were I think I'd be looking to sell these kinds of products. It's certainly something I would look into buying.


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4 comments:

Katy said...

a long time ago, when my aunt lived in Chicago, I think the John Hancock building condos, she used to tell me about her amazing shower thermostat that she could set to a temperature and it was always that temperature when she turned it on. So it probably exists. I suspect that it would work better in a bigger apartment building with a central, gigantic, water heater that would always have enough hot water at a specific temperature to maintain consistency for everyone.

Can you tell that I've been thinking about this recently? I really wish that my apartment building (6-flat condo style) had some sort of central water heater that fed into individual water heaters, and somehow controlled flow so that no one ever ran out of hot water when it was still available somewhere in the system.

Anonymous said...

http://www.faucetdepot.com/faucetdepot/ProductDetail.asp?Product=9109&AffiliateID=Nextag

but always remember... just because the thermostat says it's 110 degrees, there's usually water in the pipes after that the water heater that comes out much colder first. just ask the actors in our production of take me out the first time we turned the shower on on stage... yikes! - lindsay

Nick's Blog n@ said...

I would love a system like this, the pluming for the shower in my apartment is connected to other tenets water in the building and during a shower my the water can become instantly scalding hot or instantly freezing cold. It is really terrible.

Anonymous said...

I did read of a device that plumbs your hot water to your cold water at the point of use. So, when you want hot water, it pumps water from the hot side to the cold side until the sensor says it is up to temp. No wasted water, and it is supposed to be faster than the regular flow rate. I'm too lazy to google it for you though.

p.s. congrats on tenure