During the nearly two years my family and I have been homesteading, we have often found that something we need is not available in the marketplace. It seems odd that in a time in history when we have more stuff than in any previous time, we have to search high and low for simple tools and systems for natural living and homesteading. Often even a thorough search turns up nothing so we end up having to invent or adapt something to meet our homesteading needs.
For many years, my wife has had a general idea about creating an “outdoor bamboo shower” where the wall are made of rustling bamboo and you can see the sky and feel the sun while you shower with a modest amount of solar heated warm water. When I recently discovered a source of free Yellow Groove bamboo, I set out to make her dream a reality. The project is now complete and it exceeds all of our expectations. After making a number of adjustments, we now have a fully functionally outdoor bamboo shower with a 50 gallon solar heated hot water tank. My first diary on the subject found here (with videos) was about digging up and transplanting a bamboo grove, harvesting a quantity of bamboo poles, and building the shower itself with lumber and the bamboo poles. This diary is about building the solar heated water tank. Embedded videos of the process are below.
We have a lot of pressing needs on our homestead right now including completing a strawbale milking barn and a strawbale chicken shed. Working on an outdoor shower at the end of the summer did not seem particularly critical but the project took on a life of its own. After posting about the first part of the project here, I received some helpful comments including this one.
During the summer, I have a black plastic trashcan that sits in the sunniest part of the yard and provides the perfect temps by the end of the day.
I use 64 OZ plastic bottles with handles and holes drilled in the lids for my “shower” both in summer and winter (in the winter, the shower is a black contractors cement mixing tub placed by the wood stove.). The plastic bottles are acquired by eating a lot of Pace Picante sauce and are also kept by the sink for hand and dish washing.
Using an easy to rinse off soap like Dr. Bronners, one can get completely clean with one 64 OZ bottle of water.
Since we have been using two black plastic trash cans for water storage for years, I was familiar with her idea. The idea came to me to put a valve in the bottom of one of our water storage trash cans and run some hose or PVC pipe from it to the shower. As it was already late August I thought I would shelve the idea until next year. As it turns out the idea’s time had come regardless of the calendar or any other priorities. When I went into a hardware store for something else, I decided to take a look at the hose attachment hardware just to have an idea of what was available. I found a nozzle that would screw onto the end of the hose that could also be caulked into the trash can quite easily. I bought it immediately and the project was back on.
The building process involved a few more adaptations that are progressively documented in the videos. For instance the silicone caulk turned out to be too weak. I went back to the hardware store and asked for something thing that had threads, a nut and some washers so that the weak and toxic caulking could be done away with altogether. One of the hardware store staff thought an outdoor faucet would work if paired with some 0 rings. He was right. It did. After installation, the water could be turned on and off right from the tank itself. This was a good improvement.
The next problem to solve was the water pressure at the “shower head” (which is a hose attachment for watering gardens). What followed was a good deal of experimentation with the height of the now water tank, its distance from the shower and the length of the hose between the two. After finding satisfactory heights, distances and lengths as well as building a simple platform for the tank and learning how to add a new hose end cap to the severed hose, we achieved enough water pressure to take a very pleasant shower.
Finally, I wanted to see how quickly we could bring up the temperature of the 50 gallons of water in the tank. After doing some research online, I found a website that sells clear plastic liners that float on the top of the water in hot tubs, pools and watering troughs for animals. The flexible type of Plexiglas they use lets the sun in and minimizes heat loss due to evaporation. I found an old piece of Plexiglas in one of our outbuildings and cut it to fit the top of the hot water tank. This Plexiglas is not flexible and does not float like the kind the web site offers but it does the trick. Our tank has reached temperatures over 100 degrees and that in mid September. So we now have a functional 50 gallon hot water tank for our outdoor bamboo shower for under $35 dollars and a couple of days’ work. Everyone in the family has used it from the 5 year old all the way up and everyone loves using this natural and refreshing shower. The shower also provides a wonderful object lesson in water conservation as the entire family can easily shower with about a gallon of water per person.
In the interest of getting multiple uses out of the same resources, we are planning on more uses for the tank in different seasons of the year. For instance, in the winter the livestock watering tanks can freeze over. The ice even here in Virginia can be a couple of inches thick in the morning. Cows need a lot of water to facilitate digestion and maintain their milk supply so we have had to break the ice every cold winter morning and remove it from the trough. The cows will drink much more water if it is warm so we have often been required to lug gallons of hot water from the house to the trough. Outdoor water faucets and hoses can freeze as well so again lugging hot water has sometimes been the only answer.
Since cows drink 10 to 15 gallons at a time and since power outages can last for days, having back up water reserves is essential. As simple winter time water storage, this 50 gallon solar hot water tank could prove to be very useful. If the tank holds any heat at all in the winter it could be used to give the cows slightly warmer water and will be a great back up for power outages. If nothing else, we will be drawing water from the bottom of the tank with the faucet so the water will be ice free. If the tank continues to stay 10 to 20 degrees above outside air temperature then I may well build a few more for winter use. I could even bank them with straw bales to help hold in heat.
A final note on bamboo: There was some interesting discussion about the merits of bamboo on my last post so I want to take a moment to add some positive information about this generous grass. Bamboo sends up new growth once a year, usually in the spring. The rhizome or root ball increases its mass all summer, fall and winter and by spring it has usually doubled in size. At that point it sends up shoots which usually double the size of the plant depending upon water and weather variables. The new shoots grow quickly - as much as a meter a day in some varieties - making bamboo the quickest growing plant in the world. The new culm or cane of the bamboo reaches its maximum height anywhere from a few days to a few months after sprouting depending upon the variety. After reaching its full height, the leaves unfold within a week or so and then that particular culm is done growing forever. The next year most of the new shoots will grow a little bit taller than the shoots from the previous year and this process will continue until new shoots reach the maximum height and density for that particular variety.
What makes bamboo such an incredible renewable resource is that the whole grove can be clear cut and the timber harvested and the rhizome will still continue to grow. The next year it will again send up new shoots. So this spreading root system that is often feared because of is unrestrained creative life force is in many ways actually a blessing as it is such a valuable renewable resource. The giant timber bamboos that reach diameters of 10 inches and heights above 80ft can supply wood for all purposes and reach that height in one growing season. It takes decades for trees to reach that height and most trees die after they have been “harvested”.
Bamboo cultivation is still in its infancy in the west but bamboo already has a wide variety of uses. Here are a few:
â—¬ Bamboo for lumber. Bamboo can be used for lumber and it is often harder and more durable than traditional hardwoods. Since bamboo is such a quick growing renewable resource, using bamboo instead for appropriate traditional lumber applications would save trees.
â—¬ Animal Forage. Bamboo is a grass and our cows, goats and donkey love it. There is research being done on bamboo as animal forage which I am watching. The potential for bamboo to act as “vertical pasture” is exciting, especially for small landholdings like ours.
â—¬ Bamboo can be used as a fiber for rugs, blinds, matting, fencing, thatch for roofs, baskets and even cloth. Right now the bamboo for cloth comes with an environmental price but again the uses for bamboo are still only now beginning to be fully developed and explored here in the west.
Here are links to the videos documenting how I built the solar heated water tank:
Bamboo Shower Project Update$35 50 Gallon Solar Hot Water Tank (Part 1)
Bamboo Shower Project Update$35 50 Gallon Solar Hot Water Tank (Part 2)
Bamboo Shower Project Update$35 50 Gallon Solar Hot Water Tank (Part 3)
All the best,
Paul
