Thermostatic shower fixture?

[Elliot Naess]

My conversion is progressing in fits and starts -- but we need to get it servicable for Burning Man! We screwed the shower stall into place -- a big leap for mankind (burning and otherwise )!
Now I'm looking for one of those clever shower fixtures that regulate the temperature by itself, so nobody gets scalded. I used one at a camp ground recently -- the only control was a push button, and one push gave about a minute of water of pleasant temperature. Does anyone have experience with such a gadget?

[lapeer20m]

i played with one on my skoolie back in march. I was running a shower utilizing the garden hose and my boiler. I didn't have much luck with the anti-scauld device. This was a fancy little gizmo from home depot for about $50 bucks. The problem i had is that the pressure between the hot and cold water was significantly different. The boiler and associated tubing created much less pressure for hot water at the valve than the cold water had. long story short, it did not work well for my particular application. The idea of an anti-scauld device is excellent, and i have no doubt that you could get it to work properly if you put a little more time and effort into it than i did.

how much shower water you bringing with ya to bm? are you going to carry the grey water out with ya, or evaporate it on the playa?

Where are you camping at the burn? I'm staying with the C4 camp (crazy canadian cosmic cats) we're gonna be at 4:30 in the keyhole.

I think the burn was better when they did not have keyholes. IT seems to spread too thin the excitement of the esplanade. This is my 3rd burn

as a side note, i spent the nite on the playa a week ago yesterday. I think i'll go start a burningman thread.....

[Elliot Naess]

My thinking is to have the same water pressure on both sides of the valve. Just split the water from the tank: one directly to the shower valve and one thru a big black solar collector (black ABS pipe) on the roof. I'm trying to avoid bringing propane. Hopefully I can get a pump that can push the water up to the roof.

Don't have the tanks yet, but I'm looking at a catalog that shows some suitable 63 gallon plastic tanks. Two of those (126 Gallons) would fit between the frame rails behind the axle. Then grey water will go on the outside of the frame -- roughly same amount of space and with no crossmember in the way. Black water will go on left side forward of the axle -- where the luggage compartment is. I may have to have that tank custom built.

I may also put a movable fresh water tank inside the bus -- one of those industrial / agricultural tanks in a steel cage.

I'll carry everything out. I've been reading about evaporation ponds on the ePlaya, but I don't think that's for me. The bus can carry it just fine.

I'm still learning the street terminology of BRC -- this will be my first Burn. I'm hooked up with the famous Kaz-bus, and they are planning to be near 2:45 and D.

My bus is now white with a wide red stripe along the sides. Looks like an ambulance!

I have thought about starting a bus thread on ePlaya, but if you start a Burner thread on Skoolies, we can post a reference to it on ePlaya. There is a RV-BM thread on Tribe.

[the_experience03]

A lot of expensive Moen shower heads have antiscald devices built in. As for the pump....ignoring the head loss due to internal resistance in the pipe (since plastic pipe has a nearly 0 coefficient), you really are only lifting the water to showerhead height which obviously is easy for pumps to do. This is because the water coming down offsets the water coming up. If you were really concerned about siphoning or straining the pump to maintain pressure up to it, you could always install a brass check valve on the leg going to the solar collector on the roof. I know we sell them for $7 for the 3/4 inch brass ones made by Wayne (the pump manufacturer). I spent many says in the plumbing department thinking long and hard about my solar system.

[Elliot Naess]

Sounds good. I'm willing to spend the money for plumbing that really works. Just ordered a $632,95 Thetford Aria toilet. So I'll go look at the Moen shower valves. But where are those shower valves with the self timing push button? That would be really the way to go with limited water supply and many grimy guests.

[the_experience03]

Just put a shutoff for the hot water outside the shower so you can let people know when their time is up I personally don't care for those timer showers. I get easily annoyed. However...I will try and track down a source for them at work tomorrow. At the very least I hope I can get you a brand name.

[lapeer20m]

i looked at home depot, wal-mart, and some hardwars for a 1gpm shower head, but had no luck. Perhaps because we're the great lakes state and water conservation isn't even in the dictionary....perhaps if you lived closer to Cali you could find one.

2.5 is the best i can find. 2.5 gallons per minute is a lot of water when you're trying to bring all the water you need for a weeklong party in the desert. That's a total of less than 1 hour of shower time with 126 gallons. Any shower is better than no shower though!

i've considered buying a sprayer nozzle from tractor supply. The type used to apply chemicals to your lawn. That would deliver a very very limited amount of water.

[the_experience03]

You could always put a spigot inline to increase entropy...i.e. limit flow. I know they did that at Countryfest. The showers all had pull cords to turn them on and a valve that made it feel like....well....more of a golden shower if you will.....They took the knobs off the valves. Of course it didn't take us long to learn to tie the ropes in the "on" position and bring vise-grips with to get some adequate flow.

[waywardfool]

what is a 'playa' where you are gonna evap the waste water. and an 'ePlaya'?????

[Elliot Naess]

Good question. Some of us tend to speak in "insider slang".

The Playa is the vast desert surface where the Burning Man Art Festival is held every August. It is in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno Nevada. 35.000 people gather for a week, and after they leave there is NO TRACE that they were ever there.

All supplies must be brought in, and everything hauled back out. One exception is waste water, such as from showers, which may be evaporated, provided the dirt and soap scum and such is collected and hauled out. When we talk about evaporating the "grey" water on the Playa, we mean to build a large flat basin of heavy black plastic and letting the grey water evaporate. Finally we roll up the plastic, which is now covered with dirt and soap crud, and haul that to the dump.

ePlaya is the bulletin board, similar to this one, on the Burning Man web site. It is very big and active. http://www.burningman.com. Then click on eplaya.

[Ryan Grimm]

You want low-water use? Use a plastic plant/chemical sprayer like used to spray on deck wash, etc. It'll hold one or two gallons depending on which one you buy.
Some folks use 'em to cool off......

Wet yourself down, soap up, rise off.

I've also used a five-gallon jug heated in the sun, and just dribbled on while suspended overhead...but I guess you want the portable house convenience, doncha?

Otherwise, tell them folks to bring their own water......

[Elliot Naess]

Found a 45 second push button valve and an anti-scald thermostatic thingie. Commercial grade stuff; Symmons, I think. Had to order them. Now I'm waiting to see if they arrive in time.

Most likely I'll run out of time to install all this stuff. But I'll be there.

Thanks for all the ideas!