Rabbit hate taking baths

How rabbits use water

Rabbits and other animals use water very sparingly. Rather than have a shower we groom ourselves using our tongues. This saves heaps of water. When we go to the toilet we don’t use any water for flushing. It's not needed. Yes, we do need water for drinking and washing some of our food. But compared to what humans use its not much at all.

Human uses for water

Humans, by comparison use lots of water. Humans take

• 70% of water from waterways to grow their food.
• 20% of water to send to businesses and houses in cities.
• 10% - Only 10% of water remains in waterways for aquatic animals and plants. That doesn’t seem fair.

How can Humans Reduce their Water Use?

There are several ways that humans can reduce their use of water.

• Shower for one minute
• Install a very large rainwater tank to collect roof water
• Use grey water from showers to water the garden
• Use a composting toilet
• Grow food at home (fruit trees, vegetables and keep chickens)

Showering for One Minute

The shower uses the most amount of water in the house - 49 litres per day Yarra Valley Water report

We can easily shower for one minute, using 7.5 to 9 litres of water, and still be clean.

Just wet yourself, then soap yourself, and give yourself a final rinse.

If you can have a lukewarm shower (25degC) this will be even better because a lot of energy is used to heat water.

Hot Water Heaters

Heating water consumes significant amounts of energy Sustainability Victoria.

For a family of 3:

• 0.54 tonnes/year for electric heat pumps
• 0.27 tonnes/year for solar natural gas boosted
• 0.95 tonnes/year for natural gas storage
• 0.66 tonnes/year for instant gas hot water

The target needs to be 1/15th of current hot water heating systems (Australians currently produce 15 tonnes GHG/year and we need to reduce emissions to 1 tonne/year).

If we assume that current hot water heater technology generates on 0.5 tonnes/year on average, then the target will need to be 0.03 tonnes/year

None of the options above will reduce the amount of GHG emissions sufficiently to achieve 1 tonne/person/year or the 1.5degC of global temperature rise (67% confidence) Greta Thunberg Climate Delusion

It is not possible to turn down the temperature of these hot water systems and use less energy because of the risk of creating ideal conditions for Legionella bacteria.

Solar Hot Water Showers

Outdoor camping solar showers are a step in the right direction. They hold 20 litres of water or more. However most are made using PVC, which ends up contaminating the water (PVC has a strong recognisable odour)

Building a DIY Solar Hot Water Shower

If you shower at the end of the day you can enjoy a warm shower for free using the sun's rays.

Build yourself a Solar Oven that can hold 4 litres of water. It is easier to use thin dark metal pots. A standard solar oven design should hold two pots, with 2 litres of water in each pot. You can also use glass jars. Each lid on the glass jar needs to have a large hole (make a hole using a nail or 4mm drill) to prevent any pressure build up.

The Solar Oven is made by painting the inside of a cardboard or metal box black using paint. Attach some clear plastic or glass to the top of the oven. This arrangement will help collect and trap the heat from the sun.

Place your dark metal pots filled with water inside the oven. The oven needs to be in a sunny and protected location.

When the water is hot (80 degC), simply decant the hot water into smaller PET bottles 3/4 filled with cold water. Topping up each bottle with the hot water will produce warm water for showering.

The lid of each PET bottle needs to have small holes drilled into them. This way the caps will function similar to a standard shower head. Bottles can be carried up to the shower cubicle using two buckets to balance the load.

To conserve the heat in the water bottles place them in an esky or insulated container until ready for use.

Create a holder in the shower cubicle so that each bottle can be held in place and release water.

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