Like most people, I care about conserving water – but when it comes to actually scrimping on shower-time, I am loathe to cut back on my morning wake-up ritual. Thats why I am so excited about a new eco-friendly shower design from a student at the Royal College of Art in London. Design student Peter Brewin has developed a shower that actually recycles water – drastically reducing consumption, and saving customers a pretty penny in their utility bills.The Eco-shower re-circulates and cleans used water working on similar principles to a Dyson vacuum cleaner. The system uses filters and hydro cyclones to clean the recycled water and reheat it to the desired temperature. According to a BBC article on the subject, If Londoners were to jump in the eco-friendly shower, it would reduce the capital’s water usage by 85 billion litres each year – the equivalent of 85,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The Eco-shower has just won the British Standards Institution 2005 Environmental Design Award. Judges saw the design as particularly relevant, given the water shortages that have been predicted for London and many other parts of the UK.
Although the shower has some cool additional features, such as a chlorine filter, a water meter showing water usage per shower, and a pause button which allows water flow to be stopped until it hits the right temperature, Brewin predicts that the main commercial appeal of the shower will be its ability to save consumers money in their monthly bills. Who can argue with that?
Via the BBC