Sustainable bathroom: energy and water saving with preservation comfort

Did you know that old-fashioned showering costs as much energy as heating your house? Every day. So In your bathroom you use a lot of energy for hot water. In addition, you use drinking water during showering and bathing in your bathroom.

What is the cost of showering per year?

The average shower time is 9 minutes. On average someone uses 7.2 litres per minute so 65 gallons of water per shower turn of 9 minutes (source: Nibud). Most people heat their shower water with a geyser or combi-boiler. To heat the 65 litres, approximately 0.5 m3 of gas is needed. Per Year 1 person uses 18,250 litres of water and 180 m3 gas. In cost is about 18 Euro * + 122 * * Euro = 140 Euro per year. Per shower turn is about €0.40. For a family of 4 people who are showered every day that is 560 euros per year.

• * Assuming the 1 m³ (= 1,000 liter) Price water of €1,-(price arrow 2018 en)
• * * Assuming the M³ gas price of €0.67 (price Arrow 2018 NL)

What costs in bath go per year?

If you go in a bath every day, it costs 120 litres per filled bathtub. Most people heat their bath water with a geyser or combi-boiler. To warm up the 120 litres, approximately 1 m3 of gas is needed. Per Year 1 person uses 36,500 litres of water and 365 M3 gas. In cost is about 36 Euro * + 244 * * Euro = 280 Euro. For a family of 4 people that is 1120 euro per year.

What can you do in your bathroom to green?

In your bathroom you consume the most water of your house. And to think that in the Netherlands this is the highest quality drinking water that you rinse with the bath and shower water. Time to get into action. Your bathroom is an ideal place to make your home more sustainable. Especially if you are going to remodel or renovate your bathroom, this is the chance to make your bathroom sustainable.

There are 2 ways to do something:

1. You want to be more sustainable in your existing bathroom.
2. You design a completely new bathroom or (béter) renovate your existing bathroom.

If you create a completely new bathroom or renovate your existing bathroom, you can build up a number of technical things that will greatly help you out of your behaviour against the wastage of energy and water. Fortunately, you can also get a more sustainable bathroom without altering your behaviour.

You want to be greener in your existing bathroom?

You can also reduce your foot print in your existing bathroom. You do this by wise to deal with water and especially hot water. Did you know that warm water 50% is more environmentally damaging than cold water? Below saves energy and water consumption and money in your wallet!

1. shower up to 5 minutes. The least fine, but best tip, is less long showering. In a household in which everyone is less than one minute a day under the shower, 6,000 litres of water can be saved on an annual basis.
2. shower instead of bath. If you use 5 minutes of showering you consume average 40 gallons of water. With a full bath of an average of 110 litres you are 3x so high!
3. Set the basic temperature of your shower and or bath water in at 38 degrees. Hardly any cold water is required for a pleasant shower temperature. If you need to mix hot water with cold water it will cost energy. This works depending on your hot water system via the boiler, HR kettle or your heat system.
4. Share your bath or shower and save half of water. This used to be quite normal and now completely hip. And of course much more sociable!
5. Allow the crane to go through as little as possible. It is very tempting to let the faucet run while brushing your teeth, soaping the hands and shaving. Just 20 litres per minute disappear. Fill the sink with water for your shave. This is a 5 litre time instead of 2 minutes with a total of 40 litres of consumption.
6. reduce the contents of your toilet cistern. Put a bottle of water in your cistern. A brick can also. In a cistern there is an average of 10 litres of drinking water. If you don’t want to change anything on the system itself, you can reduce the 10 litres per rinse by reducing the contents of the water reservoir. 1 brick saves 1 litre per game. On an annual basis this will soon save 1825 litres per jar (5 toilet visits per day.)

And consider these minor interventions:

1. Take a water-saving shower head. The larger resistance allows you to save a lot of water without sacrificing comfort. A normal shower head flows on average 8.7 litres of water per minute and with a waterproof shower head this is 5 litres. A rain shower which is driven by 15 litres of water per minute consumes 3x as much water! Then you might as well take a bath.
2. install a shower and or bath faucet thermostat. It automatically sets the temperature for you. No geklooi with too hot or too hot water and more important; No minute costly heats up drinking water which is lost every time during the setup time of your shower. A shower thermostat is therefore better for the environment and more comfortable to use. Therefore, with a shower thermostat, you quickly save 35% of hot water.
3. isolate your bathtub so that the water stays warm longer and you do not need to replenish new hot water. With a inbouwbad you can usually go somewhere near the side to clean the drain. Fill the space between your bathtub of the paneling ring and the bottom with insulation material as rockwool.
4. Replace old faucets for water saving faucets. Often, modern taps are water-efficient than old ones. Or install a water-saving valve on the end of your bathroom faucets.
5. Replace the water reservoir of your toilet with a hydraulic button. This allows you to choose a small or large game. This quickly saves 8000 litres per year per person!

Renovate your bathroom to a sustainable bathroom

With a new green bathroom you will notice a number of things:

• Comfort
• Design Use of sustainable materials
• Water Reuse
• Reduce water consumption
• Efficient Heating Water
• Heating space
• Easy to clean

Most interventions to make your bathroom of this time seize in on your heating and water system of your home. So keep in mind if you are going to grow your entire house.

Reuse of water with grey system

As mentioned above, a lot of clean drinking water goes through your bathroom. This shower and or bath water can easily be used again for your toilet or e.g. cleaning your bike or car.

In most cases, a reuse system is chosen for the following cycle:

• Input is showering
• Cleaning with filters as a constructed wetland and then reuse for washing machine and dishwasher
• Then use it for play toilets and or garden

A grey water system is not profitable in the Netherlands because of the low price, but in countries where the water is expensive or of poor quality certainly. You can also think the other way around: catch rain water and rinse your toilet with it.

Heat recovery (WTW) from water

In addition, you can regain or reuse the heat from the hot water that passes through your shower drain to the sewer. Sin of the energy of course.

With a WTW system like a shower gutter or a shower tray, with the warmth of the doucheputjewater you can preheat cold water again for your shower. These systems let the warm waste water flow along the still cold incoming water flows so that this becomes preheated.

Suppose that wastewater is still 27 degrees and the cold water to be heated is 10 degrees, the cold water is first warmed up to e.g. 20 degrees with the 27 degree waste water. Then you still need to heat the water from 20 to 38 degrees instead of 10 to 38 degrees. For a 4 person household, you can still save Shire 200 m3 of gas Per year. Unfortunately, WTW are still at the price (€300-€800), which means that the payback period is 5 years. The systems only work efficiently when a minimum of 3 minutes is showered. This will allow you to work longer in the hand. Tip shower all directly in succession by then you get those 3 minutes though.

Water Saving

The saving shower tips as shorter showering are already mentioned. If you create a new bathroom, you can also save water without compromising on comfort by imposing a water saving shower system that reuses both water and energy. The same money for the toilet.

Water saving and WTW in one system for your shower

There are also complete shower systems on the market that all work together: saving water through reuse, energy saving through heat recovery (WTW). These are 2 brands that happen to come from the Netherlands too (the home of Papagreen.org)

• Saving showers from Xenz
• The HOMESPA and the Bleu of Hamwells
• And the Australian Quenchshowers
• And then still do it yourself open source shower system

Water Saving WC

You can also save water with your water closet. A normal reservoir flushes up to 10 litres of water with each flush, regardless of whether it is a small or large message. You have

So choose your bathroom renovation for a modern toilet reservoir with a separate knob for little rinsing water and a larger knob for plenty of rinsing water.

Or even better: one button that you have to hold longer for longer and therefore more water. This makes the standard (even impressions) the most commonly used variant. And did you know that a toilet bowl with no edge and less water needed to rinse and to keep clean is easier?

Comfortable and energy efficient design

If you choose a completely new sustainable bathroom, this starts with the design. This usually fits in your larger conversion if you are also adjusting water pipes and heating. Do you choose infrared Panels for heating or underfloor heating or low temperature radiators?

A bathroom produces a huge amount of moisture, which requires extra attention to be paid to the materials and ventilation. A wrong choice of materials can lead to fungi which does not benefit the indoor climate.

Bathroom baths, washbasins and shower cubicles of vinyl and acrylic are made of petroleum and not or hardly to reuse and recycle. Therefore choose for reusable materials such as steel (enamel bath of sheet steel), glass (tiles) and ceramics (washbasins).

Take care of the design for good ventilation possibilities. An open window whether or not on the Kablan tooth is ideal. If this Is insufficient, apply a functioning ventilation system. Good ventilation also ensures that the moisture does not come into the rest of the house and will cause problems.

And then this: bathroom environmentally friendly keep clean

Furthermore, a bathroom must be easy to keep clean. Bubble baths and shower cubicles of plastic are only with large amounts of detergent to clean. Also the lifespan of a plastic (e.g. acrylic) bath or shower stall by pollution and yellowing is often shorter than more durable materials like glass, ceramics, stainless steel or enamel. For example, choose an enamel bathtub instead of acrylic. That is not discoloured and can be kept clean without aggressive cleaning products.

Make as much use of organic and natural care products as possible during bathing or showering. These are often much less aggressive for your bathroom but certainly also for yourself.