Imagine cleaning yourself with only 5 liters of water. That’s just over a gallon – and no, it doesn’t have to be a big bucket for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Nor do you need to use a sponge. This is the total water consumption of the plainly-named Shower of the Future, created by Orbital Systems out of Sweden. Although based on research carried out with NASA, this is not the launch company that recently lost a rocket.
As only the Swedes excel at, the SotF was designed with minimal surface features and maximum thought, reducing consumption by recycling water continuously. The system detects and selectively filters out contamination, and as the water leaves the filters, it is reheated and returned into the loop. When eventually someone else boots you out of the shower and back into your drudgery of a morning, the entire loop is replaced with fresh water.
As one would expect, the annual savings on water usage are enormous, ranging from 90% of your water consumption and 80% of your energy consumption. Considering the weight and energy needed to move and heat water, you can see how the process of recycling the used water could make a significant dent. Like anything else that’s ‘smart’ these days, you can even track how much you’re saving using your phone.
Ultimately, the critical problem that Orbital has claimed to have solved is creating a maintenance and hassle-free system. According to their website, the life expectancy of the filtration capsules range from 15,000 L to 50,000 L and can be replaced by the user.
The biggest question on everyone’s mind is, in fact, the first question answered one their very detailed FAQ:
We promise you that you are NOT going to experience a golden shower. The shower is equipped with sensors that recognize the quality of the incoming water and can therefore determine if it should be flushed out of the system. For instance, if someone urinates or empties an entire shampoo bottle in the shower, the sensors will recognize the unusually high amount of contaminated water and replace just that amount, with the same quantity of new water.
Find out more over at Shower of the Future.
