As part of an RSA design competition called 'Sustainably Clean' the brief stated that we were to design a product or system to allow people wash or clean themselves using minimal or no water, or for people who cannot access water or have low temperatures of water for washing.
My research led me investigate the current water usage in the medical/healthcare field. After visiting a few nursing homes I realised there is a lot of water being used and wasted unnecessarily both by patients and staff, not just in nursing homes but in hospitals too.
When the patients are bed bound they will normally be bathed in bed. However, if a patient is able to get out of bed then they carers will shower or bathe the patient. In both these cases water is constantly running to ensure the water used to wash the patient is always clean. This is standard practise and is not an issue, the only time it becomes an issue is when the patient is being washed and lathered. When the patient is, for example, getting their hair washed, the clean water will just be running into the drain as the carer is not using the shower head at that moment. The only way to combat this would be to switch the shower head off whilst lathering, by doing this it allows the water to cool and will either be uncomfortable for the patient, or will be a waste of water having to wait for it to warm up again.
After concluding my research and realising this was a domestic issue as well as an issue in the healthcare field, my design to solve this issue is the Shower Trigger Valve.
