idea Owners
"Bucket baths" save lots of energy and water compared to a shower, but they are not popular in industrialised countries. Could the bucket, jug or other bathing accessories be re-designed to make bucket baths more appealing to consumers?
In the UK, heating water accounts for 18% of domestic energy use. Much of this is for hot showers. One shower uses on average 62 litres of water, although a power shower could use as much as 136 litres and a low-flow shower head could use 32 litres per shower. A bath in a bathtub uses 80 litres on average.
In contrast, "bucket baths", which are popular in developing countries, can use much less water - around 10 to 20 litres. A bucket is filled or partially filled with water and a smaller jug is used to scoop and pour water.
Athough bucket baths save a lot of water and energy, and avoid the damage that long, hot showers can do to skin, they have some disadvantages:
- If people are not used to using them, it can take some practice before being able to clean effectively with this method
- You have to wait for the bucket to fill up, whereas you can turn on a shower instantly
- You have to bend over to scoop up the water
- The handle of the jug can be rough and dig into fingers or slip from fingers
- It can be difficult to control where the water goes when pouring from the jug
- If the air is cold, bucket baths can be less pleasant than showers because you spend less time under the water
- The water still in the bucket can become soapy unless you are careful not to drip soap into the bucket and only rinse soapy hands and sponges in the jug, rather than the bucket
- Have to invert the bucket to get out the last of the water
- Water can go cold while it sits in the bucket
Could good design address any of these issues? Hari Kara has suggested design alterations such as using a smaller bucket to reduce filling time, using a ladle instead of a jug and mounting the bucket on a stand to reduce the need to bend over. What other design alterations could be made? Some of my ideas include:
- Changing the jug so that water flow can be directed better or more precisely, e.g. by using a nozzle or spout
- Having a jug with a "rose", like a watering can, so that water can be sprayed rather than poured
- Designing a "shower puff" (see below) to retain water better so that it has to be dipped in the water less often, e.g. by having a spongy centre
- Smaller, ergonomic jug that can be grasped by its body rather than by a handle
- Jug that fits the contours of the base of the bucket better, to more easily scoop up the last of the water
- A bucket with a lid or partial lid to keep the water warmer for longer. A partial lid would remove the need to lift the lid every time you want to scoop up some water.
What other ideas can you think of?
The picture below shows two "shower puffs", used for scrubbing the body.
Comments
Dear Helen, I understand the real issue - Save Water and Energy to take a shower - But why use an old and cumbersome method such as bucket bath to reach that goal? I would never do that if not being in the wilderness and having to do it. The shower system as we have today is imo very good and far better than the bucket method, The prolbem is that it just leads to a wrong (in terms of consumption) behavior. So i would try to think how to modify the behavior while sticking to the basic concept. What are characteristics of wrong showering? - High consumption due to long showering! Why? It feels good; people use shampoo and soap while water runs instead of stopping it; a lot of water is wasted because it does not "hit" the target; showering every day (or more) is regarded as good behavior to be "clean" while this is not really true. - High energy due to too hot temperature: people "mis-use" showering as a sort of sauna replacement or wellness treatment; no awareness about the harm of too hot water to the skin Some solutions ideas: - if you do not foresee a fixed wallsupport for the showerhead you can only shower while holding the showerhead in your hand. Its less comfortable but it obliges you to stop the water flow while washing yourself and thus waste less water (Remark: I know one Hotel doing this with success) - People are not aware of the amount of water they consume --> why not mount a flow meter at the shower pipe with a display and a control unit which stops after each phase: get wet (5 l) - prewash (5 l) - wash (5l) - clear rinse (5 l). Or use a "time" button, i.e. each time you press the button you get x Liter of shower water... Conclusion: this is just a very first reaction to your idea but in any case for me bringing the "old" bucket bath method with all the drawbacks you listed yourself to a highly developed culture will not work Cheers Ugo
Dear Ugo, Thank you for your comment. With regards to the bucket bath, I appreciate that there are some drawbacks. However, I don't think that they are as bad as people might expect if they haven't tried it and got used to it. The idea of coming up with better designed equipment might make people less apprehensive of trying bucket baths. I personally prefer a bucket bath to a "water-smart" shower head with very low flow rates. You are quite right that there are other methods of reducing water consumption. As for your suggestion of encouraging consumers to stop and restart the flow as required, I think that this would work best with showers connected to a hot water supply from a boiler. With electric showers, the temperature often fluctuates sharply if you stop and start the flow, causing scalding or an unpleasant cold surprise! Perhaps the temperature control system could be re-designed to make it easier to dispense small amounts of water with a uniform temperature? The idea of helping people to see how much water they are consuming is a good one, as it can be difficult to judge this from a flowing shower head. However, there is no guarantee that it would cause people to use less water. Perhaps it is necessary to provide some context on how much water is typically used in a shower and how much would be reasonable for a more sustainable shower, e.g. as a sign in hotel bathrooms (like the signs they often have encouraging towel reuse)? Thanks again for your feedback. Helen
One further advantage of using the bucket bath is that nothing new has to be installed in the bathroom, since all of the equipment is separate from the wall and plumbing system and so can simply be carried in.
Dear Helen, we really have different opinions on this topic. I used bucket bath while camping and in a sauna in the middle of nowhere in Finland --> because it was the only available and sensible way, and it was good there. But why should i pour water from a tap or showerhead in a bucket, and then use some tools to do my washing while being in my bath? The shower cabin is normally small (which is good in terms of loosing less heat) and i do not have much space for buckets and doing some maneuvering while risking of loosing water and heat in each transaction. Anyways I do not know how this process should go on but I do not see us continuing debating by sending posts so it will be my last before understanding where this goes. As said: i completely share your aim of reducing water and energy while showering but i want to be also fast and efficient in doing so. greetings Ugo
Dear Helen, It is time to vote on the most significant and interesting problems from the first phase of the challenge and to spread the word about your idea: Which of the problems submitted regarding the worst unsustainable products do you find most meaningful? Which should the innonatives community take further in Phase 2 to work on solutions? Take the chance and promote your idea among your friends and your social network connections. If you get the most votes then we will continue working with your idea in phase 2 of the challenge. Please go to https://www.innonatives.com/challenge/sustainability-by-design/ideas and vote on the problems submitted by clicking on each idea, and clicking on the stars above the idea brief: 5 stars are best, 1 star is worst. We love to hear your opinion! Your sustainovators team
The comments are closed.