to minimize the air-chilling load in a tropical home, I wish to design/build/install a bathshower which is optimized for showering at (say for example) 104 F,while giving off the least possible amount of water vapor into the ambient air. Another motivation is that my water comes from rainwater-harvesting, and my storage is not infinite... so I wish to maximize the rinse-useage of my water.
I open the floor to suggestions.
Build a cubicle and the extract moist air outside. Use a heat exchanger in the exit to recover the water?
Dear alanh_27:
R. Buckminster Fuller. URL:
David A. Smith
A swag says the amount of water lost to evaporation is probably trivial compared to the amount of water going down the drain.
A vent to the outside to keep it out of the air conditioned areas.
Yes but the latter is easy to collect.
What do they do in the space station?
Electrostatic precipitators will pull water droplets out of the air, but there are some obvious safety issues.
If you pump the air through the right type of fabric it would probably filter the air of water droplets, but not all fabrics would work. You would probably need a fairly large cloth membrane.
The best option would be electrostatic, where your collectors are cooled to effect precipitation of gas phase water as well. An electrically charged automotive radiator filled with relatively cool water would probably do the job, would probably be about 95% efficient.
In sci.physics, CWatters
wrote on Sun, 22 May 2005 16:07:32 GMT :
True, if one doesn't mind "gray water". It would have to be filtered prior to reuse, though in the case of a shower that might not be all that difficult as the impurities are mostly hydrocarbons (soap).
Dear The Ghost In The Machine:
Surfactants aren't all that easy to filter out. In the case of most soaps, biological cultures exist that will consume it... Better to simply minimize the amount of water (and soap) involved in the process.
David A. Smith
True, but then what do you do with it?
Detergents are difficult to filter out.
If it is a tropical area, I would assume there is lots of water around in general but a lack of drinking grade water.
Solar still?
In sci.physics, N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc)
wrote on Sun, 22 May 2005 14:15:11 -0700 :
Hmmm...OK, I stand corrected. An interesting problem.
Sponge bath, anyone? :-)
Turn on the bathroom fan to suck air out while you shower. The thermostat isn't in the bathroom, so keep the vapor from circulating through the house.
Take a bath instead.
[Old Man]Cold water does not increase humidity as much as hot water.
You could shower using very cold water, or simply scrape your body with small blocks of ice.
I answer the question with another question.... do they get paid overtime if they work for more than 8 hours?
To answer your question.... sponge baths.
They don't do laundry. Clothes are thrown away after they are adjudged to be too smelly. Really.
thermostat
And the make-up air comes from where.... and bears how much humidity?
Ah, but I always use up my cold-water-shower supply from never getting laid.
I heard that the self-scourging that Shiite Fundamentalists perform on the anniversary of Ali's Martyrdom, does a great job of scraping the skin clean.
Saves them a lot of water and energy making up ice-cubes, also.....
The make-up air comes from outside and bears less humidity than the shower air does, and is likely cooler than 104F.
Compared with the continuous exchange of air and energy along the entire outside surface of the house 24 hours per day, I suspect that the shower load is pretty small.
In this application such a heat exchanger would be called a condensor, since its objective would be to recover the water, not the heat.
Tom Davidson Richmond, VA
Well you could always use the heat to heat the water for the shower as well.
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