Lowtech Graph lists low-tech options for every need of a home. Here you can compare them, find tutorials to build them, and link them together into a circular system. Why low-tech?

Bathing / washing

Washing the body. It is the largest single use of hot water in most houses, so it sets the size of both the water store and the water heating. The options differ in the litres a wash takes, in whether they need pressure or power, and in how much of the heat is recovered or reused.

Ranked by combined water and energy use per wash. Closed-loop recirculation is highest; low-flow / mist next; a conventional pressurised shower lowest.

Solutions

• Gravity-fed shower: A shower fed from a water tank placed above it, so the water falls to the shower head by its own weight. There is no pump. The pressure is gentler than mains wa
• Pressurised mains-fed shower/bath: An ordinary shower or bath fed with water under pressure, from the mains or from a pump. The fixture itself uses no power; the pressure comes from upstream. On
• Closed-loop recirculating shower: A shower that catches its own water as it drains, cleans it on the spot and sends it back through the shower head, adding only a little fresh water. Because the
• Misting shower: A shower that wets the body with a fine mist instead of a stream, fed by a small tank of very hot water. A mist covers the skin with a fraction of the water, so