Our Homestead's Off Grid Outdoor Shower Set Up (DTube Daily Vlog)

in #dtube6 years ago (edited)

showersnap.jpg

We've been wanting to share our Off Grid (Solar Powered) Outdoor Shower Setup for some time. Today's the day!



^^ This is a DTube video!

At Mountain Jewel, our homestead, we lived the first 2 years without running water.

In fact, when we started, we filled up 5 gal tanks from our neighbor's well (what a good neighbor!) and carried it around the property. Our bathing consisted of dips in the spring fed creek AT ALL TIMES OF YEAR. While we love our creek and these were okay most of the time, needless to say we were so excited to get a HOT WATER shower set up on our land!

This took me a lot of research to put together. I didn't have any experience and YouTube wasn't very helpful. Piece by piece I uncovered what I would have to do.

005A513F-852A-41E1-886A-A397D0C7D1CA.jpeg

Tank

We had received a large water tank from being on Homestead Rescue and they had hooked up our existing well with a solar well pump and 2 solar panels.

F9B13820-0F9D-461E-B4CD-4AF717DE231A.jpeg

View of 2 solar panels (and our high tunnel)

I walk you through all of this in the video, but here is the gist:

We pump water up from the well into the storage water tank.

FFACB8F6-5527-45C2-A1D7-1AFD780D1434.jpeg

Well head with charge controller for the panels.

From there it gravity feeds into a water pump (24v, but you could get a 12v) that is hooked up to two 12v batteries (that are hooked up to a charge controller that controls the amount of energy brought in via the 2 solar panels).

8BF748DB-6ACD-4FC9-9739-E1832FBE076C.jpeg

12v batteries

We would've done this part a bit differently (hooked it into our main solar system as it has more than enough power to spare, but these things were given to us through the show so we use them!)

2FA7BFD9-3A7C-42DE-B296-33017C67A058.jpeg

Circuit breaker that acts as a switch to turn on the pump.

We use a circuit breaker that acts as a switch to turn the pump on and off.

91FAABA5-04FA-4DB1-AEF3-78AEE6DBFFA6.jpeg

Water pump (24v) and setup in an area protected from water.

After the water goes through the pump it is now sent with over 50 PSI to an on demand propane water heater (that is, of course) hooked up to a propane tank.

BD8E7C06-F948-4F99-BD17-1A5BA45B87F5.jpeg

Propane on demand water heater (Eccotemp brand).

After that, I got a fancy "luxury" shower head (a little homestead perk) and the warm water comes out of there.

74B8F47F-1BBE-45F0-8800-11A1A8438207.jpeg

“Rainwater” shower head.

We put this together coming off from the cedar water tower that Misty and I built during Homestead Rescue and we used scap lumber from the cabin build and solar shed.

356AE2DC-EB8B-4352-8355-2ED112DE72B1.jpeg

I have a water garden that the greywater goes into that has an antique Rose, hibiscus, lemon balm, jewelweed, milkweed, and more plants.

BC7353D0-198B-4D6D-B5F2-9CF393BBAAD8.jpeg

Feel free to ask questions if you have any! I didn't go into great detail in the video, but just gave the basics. I can provide more details upon request!

mountainjewelbanner.jpg

ecotrain.png
This vlog is from a passenger of the #ecoTrain. Check the tag often for more inspiring content!


▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Sort:  

I love the circuit breaker switch on that sureflow pump, and the fancy shower head too 😊 thanks for sharing 😊 wishing you a great day

thanks! the circuit breaker makes it super easy to turn on and off! we love that shower head too- have to go a little luxery sometimes on the homestead ;) thanks for stopping by. hope you had a great day too!

That looks like fun showering time! I love to shower outside! Some time ago before Alex built the earthship we stayed in a small dome with an outside showering and bath area with a hot water system attached to a gas bottle like you have. The hot water system was called "Shakti" Haha, I love India. But we didn't need pumps to get water pressure for our shower because we had our water tank placed on a higher slope of the mountain, so that was convenient. So brave you went to dip in to the creek in winter. I bet you didn't care so much if you started smelling a bit when it was really cold. I'm sure I wouldn't. ;-)

yeah love this shower and yes it's amazing showering outside! :)

ahhh that's the best- what you mention having enough head pressure from the high slope. gravity is amazing!

yes, i really got over bathing in the river. we also did sponge baths and also set up a bath that we created a fire under (but that took forever to get warm!). one of the goals this year is to have year round bathing capabilities- it really is such a must-have for mental/emotional/spiritual and therefore relational health!! good to hear from you @wombloom!! <3

Oh yeah I agree totally on the bath, We don't have one now either. Would like to make something in the garden. Why don't you place a tub under your
shower?

our shower setup we have now doesn't really have any room for a tub, but when we design a more permanent setup, we'll likely do that!!

That's one amazing shower set up!!! And yes the posh showerhead makes it so pretttyyyy. Love it!!! Do you have an indoor shower too? Our outdoor shower consists of a black shower bag slung over a branch lol... this is like the Taj Mahal.of outdoor showers!!! Fabulous!!!

thanks laydee! hahah it does look nice, eh? we do not have an indoor shower so we get pretty upset in winter to have this pretty bird taken from us due to the freezes. as i was telling clara ^^ that's one of my goals for this year- to set up a year round thing. hahah a black shower bag over a branch- that's what we did in the high tunnel this last winter! eee gawd! <3 <3 <3

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... in the truck we had a tin bath and would heat big stockpots of water on the woodfire to have a bath... I remember J washing my hair with a jug... little Jarrah first then me then Jamie as he was always more dirty. Then swoosh down the truck steps to wash off the mud. Fun times.

I highly recommend the fire bath - it's totally toasty in the water and it doesn't matter how cold it gets outside. YOu normally get so hot you could pretty much plunge into snow afterwards. If it was in an enclosure the heat would be kinda contained. I would love to rig up an oven/shower scenario to cook food and heat my bath water at the same time! i think we might have a firebath this weekend. We usually do in Winter - it's so lush under the stars. Plus lol I need another gratitude post - aaah hahahah!

By the way, love the banner - just realised it had changed as I'm on my laptop..

haha same here- ini is always more dirty so he gets the second bath!! haha

yes we did do a fire bath, but needed to set the cob/thermal mass part up differently as it took so long to heat!!! yeah freakin burned our bums a few times (we did have a wood pannel thing on the bottom to offset that- but it got hot!!)

I would love to rig up an oven/shower scenario to cook food and heat my bath water at the same time!

YESS!! we're thinking of something like this for our bathhouse! gah love bathing under the stars. what earthen magic <3 <3 <3

thanks for your praise of the banner! worked with @radicalunicorn to design in and she created it, wonderful!! <3

Great work nice to see. So much nice having a shower out in the open with the bird song 💯🐒

yes, that's one of my favorite parts... and in the evening/night showering with the stars :)

Wow had not even considered that amazing 💯🐒

After the naked mountain yoga photo, I was a little afraid to open this one lol. My parents lived on a farm with out "city" water for several years. They had this cool set up with a tank that had a bladder in it. You could pump it full then it held water pressure for your water system.

haha oh that almost scared you off? lol that set up sounds cool. so many ways to make it work!!

Amazing solutions there @mountainjewel. I love how you can redirect the used water to something usefull instead of wasting it, this is one of the most frustrating things in my flat - water just goes down the drain.

Do you have rain water collector? I would love to know how that works to implement on our ranch. Our only source is the well.

thanks @mrprofessor! we do collect rain but we just do it very simply from the roof to a couple different cisterns- no filtration for human consumption, but only for animals and for using in the gardens.

yes hate to see water just go down the drain. i love reusing it for varying things. feels very fulfilling. water is life and it's so great to work with it and design satisfying sustainable systems.

That's an awesome setup, hot showers are one of those - very nice to have - creature comforts. I have to setup a pump for the cistern soon, seeing your well head pump setup gave me a good idea of how I can setup mine - so many options :)

yes so nice to have creature comforts :) definitely! after living without them for a couple years, we really learn to appreciate them. cool. looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

oh YEAH! finally someones done a decent post about DC pumps and water systems.. THis is my weakest theme on 'offgridding' ( i just made that word up).. and SO important to get right!! I will persevere with dtube and try get it to work! much love.. great job guys!

yeah! this was a huge learning point on our homestead. i'll be putting this up on youtube soon too (maybe even tonight) so i'll be sure to share the link. dtube is tricky like that. so important to get it right for sure!!

hey, here's the youtube link

oooh COOL! thank you for remembering! now i can click n watch! ;-)

oooh POWER shower! nice!!!

just so you know embedded youtube videos dont show up on the youtube views. so many more people may see this than you know about

Really amazing what u managed to achieve, I'm researching alot now where to start with building eco structures and facilities ur page is so full of useful content thanks!

thanks so much dear! so glad to be helpful and pass on everything we've learned from others, too <3 many blessings

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70541.68
ETH 3582.21
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.74