Wise Water Use – Innovative Technology

I will admit to being a bit of an old-fashioned purist when it comes to energy efficiency and “green,” believing firmly that the proper design, integration and installation of building systems adds more to the bottom line of life cycle analysis than any amount of “cool” technology. On the other hand, there is some very innovative technology which is hitting the market - and worth keeping tabs on.



Quench Shower for Beginers



As water has been a favorite topic lately, let’s start there. Coming to us from Australia, the driest continent on earth (expect for the recent floods…) are some products which help capture and conserve water. Starting with Quench Showers. It allows you to stand in the shower for therapeutic, operatic, or whatever other effect without feeling guilty about wasting water, as it recirculates the water from your shower pan. (AFTER you’ve finished the shampoo and suds phase

Next is the CSIRO Aerated Shower. While aerated water is not a new concept, these folks have come up with a new method involving a Venturi tube, which “makes the water droplets in the stream hollow and the bubbles expand the volume of the shower stream.” Sounds most interesting, but more importantly, consumer test groups seemed satisfied with the water pressure, and overall perception of showering.

And in the rain catchment department, the Tornado gutter downspout flushes gutters 5 times faster than the typical downspout - great for those torrential rains which could result in overflow gutters, and basement flooding problems… (trick question, does the water spin in a different direction in the US than it does in Australia?) .

With ever increasing low-flow fixtures, there is a potential problem with the sewer line being oversized and not fully “flushing.” One future-proofing technique is to design now for the smallest volume, recognizing that water fixtures will likely go through a few more iterations of downsizing. A solution for currently oversized systems is the Drainwave, which uses the house graywater to help flush out the blackwater from the toilet.

So we never got past Australia, and yet have only touched on a fraction of the inventions from “Down Under.” So much to learn.