Temperature sensing bathroom fixtures
Wouldn’t it be great if you could turn off the water while soaping up in the shower and turn it back on and not have to brace for cold or hot as the mixers re-blend the water? More people would turn the water off while soaping and collectively contribute a little bit to the environment.
Now this is a novel idea, especially if there are kids in the house, though it got mixed reviews but it doesn’t quite solve the problem.
There are some industrial-application solutions out there, and yet more (PDF). But there are 2 issues with these, they are not shower heads and they require significant plumbing effort to implement, not to mention being cost prohibitive for the average user.
This low-flow head which combines the lowest flow and best price I’ve seen, does a pretty dandy job of conserving water. The bonus, the lever at the top allows you to turn water off, which does in many ways solve the problem. Though it’s a tad inconvenient, especially with soapy hands and all.
There has got to be a slightly more elegant solution out there, that combines the water saving, temperature sensing, instant on/off capabilities with a solenoid valve to regulate the flow of water.
As with all of my Why Hasn’t Someone Done This? posts, I do hope someone can prove me wrong and show me that this actually exists somewhere. Or some enterprising person is hacking together a kludge for now.