If you are heading south of the border you probably have sun screen in your bag and plan on both contending with and enjoying some rays. Well maybe. Of late we have had a lot of drenched daylight. But, Mexico surely is about sun, and we try and make the most of it.
Viva Veracruz gets mail asking about some of our rather quirky environmental eccentricities. Not too long ago we wrote about our sun hose shower system. Calling it a system is a bit of a liberty actually. We call it getting hosed.
A Sun Splashed Solar Shower. We don’t get this kind of pressure getting hosed.
We use water that has been warmed by the sun in a black 100 foot ¾” diameter hose. The hose is connected to a water line and has a sprayer on the outlet end. We stick the hose through our shower window and voila – a hot water shower.
Because we are renting we have not made a nice installation that would include installing said hose(s) on the south facing section of our essentially flat roof. The plan would include plumbing to the roof and a manifold to supply water to two 100’ length hoses (his and hers showers).
At present we merely have two hoses out on the slab that faces to the east. This provides mid morning to early afternoon showering opportunities. The hose should be rolled neatly to where the sun can cover all the hose surface facing skyward (see photo of one jumbled hose incorrectly and one neatly arranged correctly). Currently we use one of the hoses around the yard as well – of course dedicated hoses, plumbed well and perhaps even connected to an alternative shower head and so on can make the installation all the better.
Good coil, bad coil.
But, down and dirty – the black hose haphazardly splashed with sunlight produces enough water to get a nice warm shower and a hair washing to boot.
Now if you put some beans to boil in the ‘sunoven’ after a warm shower you can enjoy a hot meal without having used any gas or electric. Pretty clever and oh so green.
A distinct advantage to retirement is we can access hot water when it is available. For working folk hot water use is usually concentrated in the morning or evening – but not so for we retired types.
Disclaimer: The Calypso’s are frugal; some have actually referred to us as cheap.
We recently read a Blog where there was conversation about the ATM machines charging more for their use here in Mexico. An anonymous commenter took several to task for complaining about such a trivial charge and how we should expect to pay for the convenience and the cost of maintaining the machine etc.
All well and good and perhaps true – however we fixed income types never seem to catch a break – everything goes up and up and up!
Now here is a savings tip for the frugal at heart that includes an environmental pat on the back.
One of the recommendations the frugal traveling Calypso’s have made is the Coleman Solar Camping Shower bag. This is merely a 5 gallon capacity plastic bag with a vinyl plastic tube capped with a sprinkler nozzle.
We have found one can easily take a shower with five gallons of water. This includes a total clean-up and hair washing. The other day we were up at Rancho del Cielo. I wasn’t sure how much propane gas we had in the tank; it had been a while since our last visit. I decided to breakout the solar water heater bag. It is our hottest month of the year here in Xico, prime time to put the sun to work.
If you have been reading along I have mentioned our solar oven on more than one occasion. That too is a great gas saving device we use regularly. Now the solar bag for still more environmental saving fun!
The Coleman bag requires about 3 hours of sun to heat up a nice 5-gallon shower. It is easy to transport; and a bit difficult to heft with 40 pounds of water – but it works nicely.
A for instance: Two weeks in Puerto Escondido – the room rental will be no less than 100 pesos additional if hot water is included; often the upgrade is even higher. Currently 100 pesos is $8.00 U.S. per day. Eight dollars times 14 days equals $112.00 savings minimally. And you are helping the environment while saving!
Using the Coleman at the Ranchito got me to thinking. We decided we want to make a solar hot water collector with a more sophisticated delivery system. This won’t be one of those $2500 and up systems – remember we are the FRUGAL Calypso’s. We hope you follow along with this project. I will give this project its own category (Solar Water Heater) so you can follow it unencumbered from the rest of the blather – so Stay Tuned!
