Mist Showers

David Trammel's picture

One of the things I want to do with my down stair's basement studio apartment and backyard micro farm at my sister's is to use it to do demonstrations of appropriate technology and the ways it can be incorporated into modern homes. While I am going to have a conventional toilet installed, since as I age it may not be easy to handle the demands of a composting toilet (lugging a five gallon bucket of human manure to the composting pile in December), I still plan on having a composting toilet as well as using it as much as possible.

My sister doesn't realize how much of a guinea pig she's going to be, as an example of the people who don't understand the Long Descent but who will be seriously affected as energy prices rise and resources get harder to get. If I can teach her the usefulness of gardening, canning and storing food, conservation and energy down sizing, I can teach anyone, lol.

One luxury I can do with less going forward will be my daily (or sometimes twice daily) showers.

As someone who worked blue collar and in a active warehouse, when your work day is done you are hot, sweaty and have all sorts of things, like oils and grease in your skin and under your nails. A good, hot shower can instantly make you feel human again. I no longer work in such an environment, and most of you don't either. We could easily get along like our grandparents did, with a once or twice weekly bath, and in between washing off with a hand cloth and a bucket of water.

Now my sister's home had a bathroom remodel done last Christmas. So the shower is very nice, though it doesn't have one of those "rain heads". Not that I'm particularly interested in having one, and if the figures and numbers from the article I'm about to link to are true, such a shower head drastically increases the amount of both water and energy you use for a common shower.

The bathroom is though, upstairs. Which means climbing a very steep and narrow staircase every time I want to use it. One of the reasons I'm installing a toilet downstairs.

There is an existing shower, built by the previous owner, over near the laundry area.

I had planned on removing the shower and putting the toilet there, in a small room which also had the hot water heater in it. This would allow me to shift the washer left by 3-4 feet. I want to put a corner sink and counter between the washer and the dryer (which will also be shifted right by 3-4 feet.) Now I'm pretty sure I'm going to install the toilet on the sewer stack in the living area instead.

Based on this article, I think I'm going to remove the existing tile shower enclosure and rebuild it smaller, as a Mist Shower.

https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/10/mist-showers-sustainable-decaden...

This would have the effect of cutting down on both water and energy usage, while still giving me the luxury of the occasional shower. Honestly if I had my way, I would have a big Japanese style bathroom with deep soaker tub. Maybe I can make one and put it in the back yard next to the office/workshop.

It would have to be a bit more stylish and modern than some plastic hoses and metal nozzles but that is just cosmetic, though it probably adds a couple of hundred dollars to the cost. In theory, I should rig up a small holding tank with a way to pressurize it, instead of just using a small on demand water heater. That way I could use it if power was out, in conjunction with a solar thermal water heater, which I plan on putting on the office/workshop in the backyard. I'll have to think about how the system would be set up.

I do know a guy, who was living out in the woods, who rigged up one of those pump up garden sprayers as a shower. He said it worked.

Anyone have any experience with misting showers?

What a great idea. Ventilation is going to be critical or you'll court mold.

I've often thought that more people use more water showering because of those hot water on demand units. You never run out of hot water like you do with a tank so why not spend half an hour in the shower?

You don't need a shower twice a day unless you're doing hot sweaty work. Even once a day isn't vital if you're working a nice, clean desk job. I don't.

Teresa from Hershey