Comparing the Shower Magic system and a regular shower with MIPS Katariina Hirvonen Hilla Kyrö Linda Anttila Matias Toivanen

The idea 0 As long a shower as you want with 10 litres of water 0 Normally enough for one minute 0 Also saves heating energy 0 Recycles and cleans the water in real time

0 The ShowerMagic guys calculated the 10 liters/minute average themselves in their thesis, so we used their value 0 It could be a little lower, but using 10 litres creates nice round numbers and is easy to use 0 We also used their values of how much regular and ShoerMagic -shower use eletricity energy  They could directly see and use our values, because they are calculated from theirs o We used their thesis and its facts and assumptions basis for the whole MIPS-calculation  Of course, if their values aren’t correct, there is a serious problem with our calculations, but let’s believe they have it right!

The idea 0 Sand and activated coal filters to remove particles 0 UV irradiator to kill microbes 0 Can be installed in any normal shower or shower stall 0 Works outside infrastucture networks 0 Also works on boats and other vehicles The prototype (Picture: Jason Selvarajan, Keiran Holland)

Current situation 0 Prototype tested in laboratory settings 0 Able to clean out common particles and microbes 0 Soaps are still problematic, could be used at the beginning or end of showering 0 Pesticides and other harmful chemicals are not necessarily cleaned by the filters 0 Farm and industry workers would need to pre-wash without ShowerMagic

What we have been doing: A comparison between an average shower and ShowerMagic 0 MI calculations 0 different parts of showers 0 shower stall, faucet, water, electricity, filters etc. 0 contents of different parts 0 weight for components: research or estimation 0 MI factors 0 Resource productivity in 7 steps, SLL 0 calculating MI values with Excel

0 MIPS calculations 0 calculating MI values of different parts all together 0 e.g. shower stall, filters 0 defining the service unit 0 20 years, 3640 showering times 0 calculating MIPS with Excel 0 During the calculation process Estimations missing information 0 e.g. UV lamp

0 Because there was some missing information, the material MIPS isn’t very precise 0 weight of materials would often have to be guessed 0 some components had to replaced with another because there wasn’t any MI-values of them (the UV-lamp -> regural lamp) 0 We made assumptions concerning also the amount of showering (that person showers every other day), but the result of MIPS-calculation would change dramatically if it’s calculated with other assumptions (eg. person showers every day) 0 We also made our own estimate of how long the average shower would last in use (20 years), so the results would again change with different assumption 0 We asked person who works in kiinteistöala 0 We didn’t take account other part changes that those what we knew had to be changed (eg. the sand filter, twice in year)

0 We highlighed the red parts, because they shower the most significant water inputs in the chart

Charts comparing ShowerMagic and an average shower

Comparing different electricity MI-factors 0 Electricity MI-factors differ in different regions 0 We used values from Finland 0 If we used for example EU- or OECD- values 0 Water input would be smaller (especially if EU-values are used) 0 But the air input would be bigger -> The MIPS-results differ in different regions, and that should be taken into consideration

Options and scenarios for improvement and their effects Developing the system further Using soap products during the shower? Requires changes to the filter system. → increases the MIPS-value How the water is kept warm? Is the heat generated by the UV-lamp and the pump enough? If it isn't, the extra heating would greatly increase the amount of energy used. → increases the MIPS-value Are material choices ideal? Could the MIPS-value be decreased with other material options?

Conclusions and recommendations Great idea! It does decrease the water and energy input. But there are a few problems that need solving. To get the system accepted, using soap products during the shower should be possible. How the system can be used in regular homes? Is it easy to install, use and maintain? Could be used especially in areas that have shortage of water.

0 Could also be used in countries like Finland to reduce the usage of water and especially energy – could create significant energy savings 0 Other systems with the same idea are being developed, but they have the same problems with soap products – solving this could create opportunities in business 0 The system parts MIPS-value is very small compared to water and energy MIPS-value – so even if the system has to be changed and it would increase the MIPS-value (Look slide 11: ”Options and scenarios…”), it wouldn’t probably effect the overall MIPS-value much 0 But if there is a need for extra water heating, it would consume energy and increase the MIPS-value more than just the extra materials 0 It is hard to say how the final products’ MIPS-value would differ from the prototype so further development is needed that one could make further assumptions

Thank you! Photo source: