The a shower design by a company called orbital systems that uses nano-tech filters and smart sensors to save 90% of the water that’s used while showering by reusing water.
They have tested their product with commercial customers and are taking preorders for direct to consumer sales.
If the water prices are high the shower pays for itself in a few years.
It would make sense to do the same thing with sinks. Reuse the water by having good water filtering. Having a sink that can recycle it’s water also allows the sink to clean dishes that you put into the sink. It just needs sensors, a camera and a few motors to be able to redirect the faucet.
Once you filter most water at the tap it’s also much easier to use rainwater.
Toilets should have sensors to make smart decisions about how much water is needed at a particular instance and use exactly as much water.
Silicon Valley should build tech to reduce domestic water usage and make bathrooms and kitchens better.
Most water usage isn’t due to domestic usage but farming. Farmers will have to do with less water or go out of business.
Maybe the can also drastically improve by going high tech. Israel seems to have figured out how to do agriculture with less water, maybe Californian farmers can learn from it.
Given California’s issue with high housing prices, it might make sense to allow anybody to build housing in land that’s currently zoned for agriculture.
Can you expand on this reasoning? Water use is a planet wide issue and is even more relevant for less developed areas. This seems like something that could have very high pay off.
I doubt kitchens and bathrooms play a big role in water shortages, plus assuming (as I did) that Silicon Valley only comes up with solutions that are profitable for themselves, their solutions are unlikely to be applicable to developing countries.
Techonology that is expensive today will be much cheaper in 20 years.
The first smart phones were too expensive for developing countries.
Economies and research of scale can make nanotech filters cheaper.
The same goes for computer chips and sensors
Existing sink companies don’t have the internal culture to produce high tech sinks that are actually good. It seems to need a different mindset.
Peter Thiel speaks a lot about how there little innovation in atoms over the last decades. There’s room for innovation in the bathroom and the kitchen.
It’s not only about saving water. If you get a sync to recycle water you can do things like automatically adding soap to the water when washing your hands.
The real question is how much worse of an experience that shower is. “energy efficient” tree saving hand blowdryers in bathrooms end up not ACTUALLY drying your hands!
Getting technology right isn’t easy. Existing water saving shower solutions are indeed worse.
This shower has more pressure than a regular shower and the water is more clean than a regular shower. The water also is better temperature controlled than a regular shower. You even get a smart phone app for your shower but that’s likely not the most important thing.
The only usability issue that you have to change the filters from time to time.
The a shower design by a company called orbital systems that uses nano-tech filters and smart sensors to save 90% of the water that’s used while showering by reusing water.
They have tested their product with commercial customers and are taking preorders for direct to consumer sales. If the water prices are high the shower pays for itself in a few years.
It would make sense to do the same thing with sinks. Reuse the water by having good water filtering. Having a sink that can recycle it’s water also allows the sink to clean dishes that you put into the sink. It just needs sensors, a camera and a few motors to be able to redirect the faucet.
Once you filter most water at the tap it’s also much easier to use rainwater.
Toilets should have sensors to make smart decisions about how much water is needed at a particular instance and use exactly as much water.
Silicon Valley should build tech to reduce domestic water usage and make bathrooms and kitchens better.
Most water usage isn’t due to domestic usage but farming. Farmers will have to do with less water or go out of business. Maybe the can also drastically improve by going high tech. Israel seems to have figured out how to do agriculture with less water, maybe Californian farmers can learn from it.
Given California’s issue with high housing prices, it might make sense to allow anybody to build housing in land that’s currently zoned for agriculture.
I would rather a less valuable part of our economy do this.
Can you expand on this reasoning? Water use is a planet wide issue and is even more relevant for less developed areas. This seems like something that could have very high pay off.
I doubt kitchens and bathrooms play a big role in water shortages, plus assuming (as I did) that Silicon Valley only comes up with solutions that are profitable for themselves, their solutions are unlikely to be applicable to developing countries.
Techonology that is expensive today will be much cheaper in 20 years. The first smart phones were too expensive for developing countries.
Economies and research of scale can make nanotech filters cheaper. The same goes for computer chips and sensors
Existing sink companies don’t have the internal culture to produce high tech sinks that are actually good. It seems to need a different mindset.
Peter Thiel speaks a lot about how there little innovation in atoms over the last decades. There’s room for innovation in the bathroom and the kitchen.
It’s not only about saving water. If you get a sync to recycle water you can do things like automatically adding soap to the water when washing your hands.
The real question is how much worse of an experience that shower is. “energy efficient” tree saving hand blowdryers in bathrooms end up not ACTUALLY drying your hands!
Getting technology right isn’t easy. Existing water saving shower solutions are indeed worse.
This shower has more pressure than a regular shower and the water is more clean than a regular shower. The water also is better temperature controlled than a regular shower. You even get a smart phone app for your shower but that’s likely not the most important thing.
The only usability issue that you have to change the filters from time to time.
Yes, and their salesmen gave similar hype-pitches to the one you give in the next paragraph.
There’s also a way of taking a shower that drastically reduces the water used, requiring no new technology.