What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
There's been a question posted on the Permaculture UK Forum about supplying hot water to the shower in a caravan:
We have a static caravan on site, which is used by WWOOFers in the summer, at the moment it isn't plumbed into anything, but I understand that getting cold water to it is easy enough. What I'd love, is a hot shower too!
There is a shower cubicle in the bathroom, which is right next to the woodburner.
I wonder if there is a way to heat water using the woodburner and feed it into the shower?
The crude way would be to heat a large container of water to a suitable temperature, and then to pour this water into a bucket with holes in it, suspended over the shower cubicle.
A better solution would to use a 12 volt submersible pump to pump the hot water from a drum etc. to a standard shower spray.
It is best not to pump from a container on the stove, since with a good fire the water will get hotter during the shower.
Place a 25 litre plastic drum on the floor, and fill with water heated in kettles, mixed with cold to achieve the desired temperature.
25 litres is enough for two showers.
If a black or dark blue drum is used, in summer it will get warm enough from sunlight, only requireing the stove in winter.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
Thanks Adam2. I think the bucket with holes idea is a problem due to lack of headroom. I certainly couldn't do it in my van, unless I was showering sitting or kneeling down, although it's obviously the easiest solution. The low-impact bedsit I'm thinking of creating would have the same problem, as I'm 6'2" and the ceiling is 6 foot something!
If the hot water is only needed in summer and if there are no significant obstructions blocking the sun, you could mount an insulated vented hot water store and some sort of (perhaps home made?) solar collector on the roof.
Somewhere that I stayed had a simple shower that used a solid fuel stove and a 12 volt pump, as far as I remember it worked fine and provided ample hot water for various purposes.
A stainless steel drum of about 25L capacity was kept semi permantly on the stove.
Two outlet taps were fitted near the bottom of the drum, each fitted with a short length of hose.
One hose led to the kitchen sink, hot water for washing up etc being obtained by opening the relevant tap.
The other hose led to another metal drum on the floor, by opening the other tap, this could be filled with hot water.
The second drum, on the floor contained an electric pump connected to a standard shower spray.
The pump was turned on/off by a cord operated switch in the shower cubicle.
The drum on the stove was filled with cold water from a hose, which was also used to add cold water to the second drum on the floor, if it would otherwise be too hot for showering.
The water in the second drum on the floor, if not used promptly, stayed warm for hours as it was next to the stove.
"Installers and owners of emergency diesels must assume that they will have to run for a week or more"
I've researched various low-tech shower options (for camper van and sailing boat use) and by far the best option I came up with is a 3 litre garden sprayer, the kind that you pressurise by pumping a handle. 1.5 litres of water is enough for two people to shower with. In warm weather, just leave the container in the sun for a while, in cold weather you'll need to warm the water in a kettle first.
We have used a garden spray shower on our showing-its-age boat for years and found it often gives a better shower than those in the on site shower blocks. It helps to get a spray rose fitting to give you the proper shower effect. One kettleful of boiling water will do two good showers mixed in the proportions of 1/3 boilng water to 2/3 cold.
It helps to have something to clamp the bottle into to hold it steady so that you can pump with one hand as the pressure does drop.
This works so well we have never bothered to have pumped hot water fitted on our boat
Still using the garden spray shower on our boat. It would probably be easy enough to modify it to be fixed in a cubicle, we just use it on deck where it's easier (and more fun) to have a friend to help!
