If you love your long hot showers a little too much, perhaps a spiky shower curtain that grows more suffocating by the minute will help you speed it up. It may seem a bit silly that we need gadgets and contraptions that either spell out exactly how much water we’re using or make us physically uncomfortable if we use too much, but these designs – ranging from the practical to the absurd – really could make a world of water-saving difference.
Water-Saving Multifunctional Bath Tub
Just need to wash your feet, shampoo your hair or shave your legs? You could save a lot of water with this smart design for a multifunctional tilting tub. Depending on how you angle the basin, this tub design collects water in various chambers for partial, half or full-body submersion.
Poor Little Fish Basin
Use too much water, and the goldfish dies. That’s basically the idea behind the Poor Little Fish basin, which encourages you to wash up as quickly as possible by draining the fishbowl as the water is running. The bowl automatically refills with fresh water when the faucet is turned off.
Toilet That Reuses Shower Water
An in-wall tank stores used shower water to flush the toilet in this concept by Alison Norcott. The water is treated with low-powered ultrasonic irradiation and held for just 24 hours to keep it from getting sour.
Guilt-Inducing Water Meter Mirror
Another meter uses colored LED lights to tell you how much water you’re running, and it’ll even control the amount of water you’re allowed to use if you want it to. The icons that appear when you’re using too much water aren’t exactly subtle, guilting you with images of the children who suffer in areas of the world where water is scarce, or of polar bears on disappearing glaciers.
Every Drop Counts Water Meter
The Every Drop Counts Water Meter tells you exactly how much water you’ve used, and the temperature of the water, as you’re showering. That makes it easy to keep track of your water usage, and helps detect leaks in the pipes, too. The meter clamps onto the pipe, and won’t interfere with the water flow system.
Water Reuse Basin
It’s easy to waste a lot of water while we’re waiting for it to heat up. This basin concept would allow you to redirect that perfectly good water to a reservoir for other uses, like watering plants, instead of just letting it go down the drain. Then, when you’re ready to wash up, you switch to the waste reservoir at the push of a button.
