Most people especially young kids don't understand on a bus there is a limited amount of fresh water and would seam to run the water as long as they would at home. How does everyone go about conserving water from their fresh water tank? Just set pressure and flow very low? Spring return faucet handles? Delayed off faucet handles? Or just remind everyone to take it easy on the water.
Kenny
make them load it, or at least stand right there while it happens :), then let them run out ;)
We have an accumulator and mama controls the water pump. With the pump shut off, the water is limited. Soon the grandkids get creative with water...Cable
Shower with a friend. And with the confines of most shower stalls, a very good friend!
Quote from: DebDav on July 09, 2010, 03:41:54 AM
Shower with a friend. And with the confines of most shower stalls, a very good friend!
Do I get to choose?
put a timed switch in pump elect circuit that resets after a minute..extreme! I think education is the answer and by your example---they are watching
I'm going to install a foot switch of some sort so I can turn off the water while I'm washing my hands or whatever without having to touch the faucet.
Jerry
Why not an automatic faucet like public restrooms? I suppose that wouldn't work so well for sink use other than hand washing. They do make faucets with foot pedals. A google search should find a bunch.
One of the big water users is washing dishes. Since I'm against using throw away paper plates, I'm going to install a 18" dish washer in my truck. It holds 8 place settings (just so happens what I carry) and takes 2-3 gallons to do the whole wash cycle. Good Luck, TomC
Either do as Cable says, or give them each a 1 gallon jug 1/2 or 3/4 or more full depending on how many people are involved and how big your tank is, and tell them that is how much they can use that day. Once they are out of water, that is it. ;D
Quote from: Ed Hackenbruch on July 09, 2010, 11:02:27 AM
Either do as Cable says, or give them each a 1 gallon jug 1/2 or 3/4 or more full depending on how many people are involved and how big your tank is, and tell them that is how much they can use that day. Once they are out of water, that is it. ;D
I prefer the public whipping and the stocks ??? ;D ;D Just kidding. I know it is hard to get teenagers and most others to cooperate, especially when they have never experienced "scarcity".
Good luck,
John
A variant of this question has been a concern of mine for a while; I'm aware that I will have quite long pipe-runs from the hot water tank to the taps, and more particularly to the shower. I reckon I'm going to be running a lot of clean water to waste whilst waiting for the hot water to arrive.
It's occurred to me that I could devise a system where that water was somehow returned to the fresh water tank rather than going down the plug to the grey tank, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea - there's always the chance that providing a means of returning water to the fresh tank might introduce contamination into the tanks
Jeremy
I know Sean has electric solenoids on his hot water to be able to run the water with it returning to the tank. I'm going to do the same for the shower, but just use a standard hand valve to keep it simple. Good Luck, TomC
Turn the thermostat on the hot water heater down and the showers will not last long. My kids are in and out in on time! ;D
Plumb in a push button valve so the tap HW can be returned to the fresh tank. Saves a lot of water. There is nothing in the tap water that hasn't already come from the fresh tank so that is of no concern.
In the winter you can use the HW heater to heat the fresh tank. Insulate the wet bay and the fresh tank will keep the the other two warm. Especially if the tanks are stacked or otherwise touching. Needs to be an alternative heat source to cover the bay if the fresh is run dry.
Jeremy,
If you run your hot water supply in a loop that goes back to the hot water heater and have a pump in the loop, you could turn on the pump before you need the hot water, the hot water will circulate through the loop. When you turn the tap on, you will have instant hot water. This would be a variation on system used in hotels etc., so there is instant hot water even though you are many floors away from the boiler.
We emphasize water conservation at all times due to the small waste tanks in the camper.
Normal showers for us take several gallons of water.
When we need to conserve water due to limited hookups, we run the water into a 1 gallon container until the water is hot & the collected water is warm. We then rinse off & turn off the water while we clean with a wash cloth - then turn the water back on for a quick rinse. Less than a gallon used.
I let the kids fill gallon water jugs to fill the holding tank a couple of times. They understand water useage now.
On my last burning man trip there was one gal staying with us who just could NOT keep from using 2 gallons of water trying to flush the pottie, letting the sink run, letting the shower run, etc. Conserving water seemed like an easy task to understand, everyone else figured it out... but being I couldn't be there 24/7 to monitor her she ran me out of water in two days! Luckily there was a truck available to refill..
So I simply poked a little 1/8" hole in the top of a 2 liter water bottle, turned the water pump OFF, handed her the bottle and said "Twice a day refill is all you get from now on. Squirt your poo down with it, wash your hands with it, shower with it if you like!" It worked wonders! Amazing how little water one can use when forced to...
I've managed to get about 20 showers plus 5 days of living for 4 or 5 people out of the 100 gallon water tank in the travel trailer I used to own. I thought that was pretty impressive.
The last morning the tank was reading empty. One guy wanted to take a shower before we left and I told him the tank read empty and warned him against it. The tank ran dry when he was covered in soap!
Yea, but how did everyone smell ::) Just kidding.........
Quote from: ruthi on July 10, 2010, 09:12:14 AM
Yea, but how did everyone smell ::) Just kidding.........
With their noses, of course. ;)