Solar Showers

You’ve been working hard all day, sweating up a storm, and it’s finally time to relax and prepare for the good nights sleep your labors promise.  You’re tired yet feel good about the progress made by the day’s efforts, and now it’s time for a small indulgence – a solar shower!

A lot of the tools I use for minimalism and sustainability come from my camping and backpacking days.  The solar shower may very well be my favorite.  While I’m working up a sweat on a sunny day, that same sun is heating the water in my solar shower bag.  It’s quite a simple yet ingenious device – a plastic bag that is clear on one side and black on the other.  It has a handle and a filling hole near the top, and a short tube with a sprinkler-type nozzle at the bottom.  Fill with water, place the clear side towards to sun to heat, hang above you when ready to shower, and operate the nozzle to turn on and off the flow.  A basic solar shower bag is about $10 anywhere camping supplies are sold, although you can get fancier models with temperature indicators and mesh pockets for soap and whatnot for up to $40. 

It takes surprisingly little water to feel I’ve had a very effective and refreshing shower.  Maybe a gallon at most!  I credit the short hose the nozzle is on for much of that – being able to direct the water exactly where I want it requires considerably less volume than the conventional 2gpm (gallon per minute) drenching shower head.  I suspect the directability also compensates for the low water pressure allowed by such a short drop.  I’m also a fan of being able to see, through the clear side of the bag, just how much water I’ve used and how much remains.  I have a firm belief that the ready availability and lack of quantity reference of standard taps contributes, and almost encourages, our wasteful use of water.  Even though the areas in which I choose to live are rich in water resources, I don’t feel that gives me (or anyone) permission to use resources mindlessly. 

You could hang the bag indoors to shower, but for me the real decadence is showering outside in the woods.  My latest arrangement includes a black plastic pallet to stand on to keep my feet out of any mud.  My bag is hung on a cat’s paw (a style of small crowbar) across the top rungs of my worksite stepladder.  The stepladder also makes a handy towel rack.  I’ve strategically places a citronella torch nearby to dissuade any bugs from their own evening indulgences!

I used to have a smaller 1-2 gallon solar shower that I used when backpacking.  That one I could simply hold over my head.  The most deluxe arrangement was when I was camping with a group of about 20 people on the Manitoba prairie during the Winnipeg Folk Festival in the late 90s.  The camping area was a walk-in location that didn’t have many trees, so the engineers of the group rigged up a tall triangular frame of 2x2 wood wrapped in tarps.  We used pulleys to ease lifting the shower bags to the top of the frame, which allowed plenty of standing room underneath.  Because of the size of the group, we had 4 or 5 shower bags and had pitched in towards the cost of a collapsible cart that used to haul the bags to the water spigot daily, and also to haul gear in and out before and after the festival itself. 

When I first came out to Maine in 2002 to help the owners start construction on the main house, I introduced them to the solar shower concept.  We simply placed the bag on the cab of the pickup, and enjoyed warm showers instead of a cold hose-down from the new well.  In 2010, I had the opportunity to introduce another friend to solar showers while helping him with some cob construction.  There we used what is probably the most typical situation, and simply hung the shower from a tree branch.  Use your imagination and ingenuity to arrange your own solar shower! 

It is quite possible for the solar shower to get too hot, so some attention is required.  You have to remember to fill the bag, set it in the sun to heat, but also pay attention so it doesn’t heat past your comfort level.  Or give it an opportunity to cool down, perhaps in the shade or simply as the sun sets to where it’s no longer striking the bag directly.  On the plus side, your water won’t rapidly change temperature when you pause the flow or someone else uses the toilet! 

I suspect this attention is something most Americans would consider onerous – we’re so accustomed to being able to simply turn on a tap and fine-tune the mixture of hot and cold water, that the idea of having to plan ahead is nearly unthinkable.  But this is exactly what I see as being a leading cause of our excessive consumption of world resources – we want everything to be immediate, convenient, with little need for thought and foresight.  Microwaving instead of retained-heat cooking is another clear example.  Living a satisfying and sustainable life requires attention, planning, and an attitude shift to finding joy in that mindfulness.  Many people have learned to combine their errands to reduce fuel consumption; what other things could you do mindfully in order to live a more sustainable life?