Hacker News Reader

Comment by samcheng | Hacker News Reader

What are the modern bathing luxuries that will 'trickle down' (so to speak) to the rest of us sooner or later?

I know of:

  Steam showers
  Electrically-heated floors
  Rain showers (not new; mentioned in the article)
  Hot water recirculation?
  Tankless heaters?

View on HN

Tankless heaters. As a Russian I LOLed a bit. How about hot water with no heater? Central heating system FTW and it is much more efficient. Now I'm in Australia and I have this tankless, instant as they say, heater. I have a bit of distaste for it. 400 volts, 25 amps in the cupboard. Danger, waste of energy and you never can set up water property - too hot or it turns off because of lack of pressure.

EDIT: oh, they also have district heating in Finland as well, cool: http://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/25777/DISTRICT_...

I have a single tankless heater in my basement which services hot water to the whole house - no high voltage close to living spaces.

I am not sure about "much more efficient". It was not an uncommon view to see a strip of land with no snow on it in winter when everything else is covered. The secret? There are hot water pipes underneath. I have no idea how much energy was lost in transport.

A number of Nordic cities do this on purpose to keep pedestrian streets free of snow and ice.

Holland, Michigan in the US is notable for this. https://www.cityofholland.com/streets/snowmelt

In Russia heat from power plants is often used to heat water for residential buildings. Main product is electricity and heat is byproduct.

Bidet toilet seats? They’re not prohibitively expensive now, you just need an outlet in the right place (which is why I don’t have one).

I have a non-heated non-electric one. It has a mechanical flow control and it branches off from the main toilet line, so you're getting tap-temperature water. It's surprisingly comfortable to use (and I used it in New England in the winter). It's not much different than putting your hands in cold water, and it only takes a second to wash up. I found it substantially more hygienic than toilet paper (and I could always add a little soap if necessary), and at ~$30, it paid for itself in a year.

Spain has them in every house. Once you get used to them, they're actually really nice and far more hygienic.

Thermostatic showers are starting to get more common. They have pressure and temp controls which automatically adjust the hot and cold water ratios to keep the temperature constant (even if someone turns on a sink or flushes a toilet).

Personally, I'd happily pay for an appliance or add-on to the plumbing that increases water pressure in the shower. (Maybe such a thing already exists?) Some places have good water pressure, but lots of places don't and weak pressure really kills the joy of a shower. Fancy showerheads, which are getting to be the norm, cut the pressure even further.

You can get inline shower pumps upto about 3 or 4 bar. Will drive a fancy shower head, and half a dozen or more jets.

e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C1NOWBW

I've used this

https://images3.campingworld.com/CampingWorld/images/product...

Works like a charm. Even when you have enough pressure, it helps reducing water consumption.

One issue in older homes is that very few people clean the particle filters and you would be surprised at the build up in just five years.

There are many low flow shower heads out there that simply use a plastic insert to restrict water flow that can either be removed or bored out a bit.

I'm thinking of doing solar concentrated heater

I've seen electric baths in Japanese bath houses.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com