Imagine water that flowed into drain hole being pumped back into the showerhead.
However, this is the operational principle of dishwashers.
E: I was hit by this thought after watching Alec’s* ramble on dishwasher detergents.
*E2: Alex -> Alec
There’s those toilets that have a sink on top of the cistern so you flush with grey water.
They have this concept in Artemis Book is about a city on the Moon, and Andy Weir being a sci-fi nerd, talks a lot about the problems and solutions for that city.
So showers there are like that. (I don’t want to spoil it, but there so many cool solutions the author comes up with)
They recycle during phases. When a new phase begins, new water is used.
You don’t want to continue rinsing in dirty water, no dishes and not yourself.
This is correct. Technology Connections did a video on this…
Edit: Yup. @[email protected] posted it: https://lemmy.world/comment/20717994
Honestly, with a fresh-water rinse I could easily see that being beneficial.
Consider:
- particle filters (or other cleaning steps)
- custom water treatment like a bath
- not just water, but recirculated heat as well
- better possible water pressure (weak well pump), heat control
Maybe even the type of thing that could run off of solar or backup power for a planned shower.
Though yeah, I guess a bath (with a quick shower after) probably is a whole lot cheaper and easier to (plumb rather than) engineer. Plastic tubs have their own grossness, though.
I also imagine this fitting more as some sci-fi thing, not sure how well it’d be easy to manage water in space, though. My first thought would be people annoyed with having to vacuum up droplets, get blasted with air, or being stuck in a drying room as a safety procedure. And some sci-fi vat bath might still make more sense.
But you don’t recirculate any water while bathing?
That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know enough about dishwashers to dispute it.
It’s the case for all dishwashers I know about. It’s not that weird if you think about it. When people wash dishes by hand, they often wash a bunch of dishes in the same basin, with the water becoming increasingly dirty. Depending on how dirty and how much they care, they’ll change the water occasionally. Then they’ll give everything a rinse in clean water to get rid of soap. (obvs people do dishes on a variety of ways, but this is pretty common in western cultures.)
Dishwashers are the same, spray the same hot soapy water over the dishes for a while, until it’s dirty and most of the solids have been removed. Then drain and wash again with clean water. The soapy stage is about removing dirt, but the sanitising comes afterwards with the hot rinse and drying.
Spraying water from the line all the time would be very wasteful.
