There once was a book....

Many years ago in Britain because Prime Minister Blair was reforming many of the Labour Party’s ideas, a book was published entitled “Chairman Blair’s Little Red Book” which was colored blue with the tag line “in blue in keeping with New Labour’s New Thinking”. It was, of course, a spoof of Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book”.

So, today I went shopping. The shelves of Walmart were pretty much cleared after Christmas with things on the shelves in the “reduced” price section that could have done with 90% price reduction before they’d have been worthy of my money. Having said that I did find a couple of things. One was a pack of two G4 LED bulbs of lower wattage than those ordered from Chairman Mao’s little red kingdom. I wanted to try them in my new bulb holders.

While in the vicinity I went to Lowes (hiss, spit) where I hunted for stuff to make a water inlet. While I hunted I resolved to do a water inlet purely as a water inlet, not to plumb into the shower or the sink. The reason for that is not blatantly obvious. It wasn’t cheapness but more I’d been doing some overnight thinking.

I looked at electric water heaters and found the 15A heaters just raised the water temperature by 24F. Assuming it’s 30F outside then 54F really isn’t going to be that warm. That’s not on. The higher wattage water heaters would raise the temperature by quite a bit but I’d be moving out of a 30A power supply into 50A or even more. That’s just not on! I considered gas water heaters and the low end were pretty cheap but then there’s this whole explosive gasses inside my home thing that I just don’t like. Sure I have a little camping gas stove but that’s different. It’s all in one and not a massive system that has to be maintained. Not really that my bus has been designed for use with gas anyway.

In the end I came to the conclusion that boiling a kettle and mixing it with cold water was probably the best way to get a warm shower. Added to that, frozen water lines might make morning showering impossible. I’m already used to evening showers with my existing job since I have to leave the house at 5AM. Thus, there wasn’t much point in having any more than a simple water inlet. Truth be told there’s not much need to have an inlet because water containers can be filled and brought inside. Having said that, it would be awfully inconvenient to need water and find there just wasn’t any and that I had to put my clothes back on to draw water for a shower.

Resolving to have an inlet, I went around the store and looked for suitable parts. Finding nothing in the PVC range I saw plenty - exactly what I needed in the CPVC range. Then I noticed the CPVC stuff was rated to 100PSI while the PVC was rated to 600PSI. Quickly I put all the CPVC stuff back and hunted for a staff member who could help me find what I needed. Within a few minutes I had all the stuff needed. That was easy.

The water pipe will come in through the floor to be tended by a simple stopcock. From there, it goes to a PEX tube on the end of which is a pistol grip sprayer just like this. I liked this but it was way cheaper to get a $7 plastic spray head and some $5 hosing. Going down from the stopcock, the pipe will come down the side of the skirt on the inside to be fastened securely to more steel loops. At the very bottom will be the $8 pressure controller from Walmart that brings the input line pressure down to a maximum of 50PSI. After all that, I could have used the CPVC stuff!

Meanwhile I realized that though I have a 4 D cell powered shower pump, a 12V powered pump is now possible. Looking at the systems available online, it looks like a simple 12V put, some pex tubing, a simple shower head and a low pressure pressure switch would be the best solution. The hard part seems to be finding a shower head that can turn the water flow off when not required. The problem with my existing shower head is that the battery holder has pretty well disintegrated. Having said that, it might well be worthwhile just rebuilding it and maintaining a stock of D cells. It’s not as though showering is all that important when a simple cloth can do pretty much the same thing in the absence of a shower.

Thinking about the shower, it seems to me a kitchen spray nozzle would be ideal. That combined with a $12 pressure pump and a $3 pressure switch plus connections to my 12v battery. It might have me installing a second fuse panel but that’s perfectly fine. I must say that I like having everything with standard ATC automotive fuses. Well, at least a cheaper shower works for me!

In the future I might want to add underbus fresh water tanks and a black water tank. I’m not convinced by the need for a generator though. I think bigger lithium batteries (or if Fisher gets his way some kind of solid-state battery) is the way to go. Charge while driving and charge from solar too. Maybe also charge from some kind of solid-state catalytic charger that runs off butane though right now all those options are horribly expensive.

Once the 12v electricity, the water inlet and the possible 12v shower are worked out and completed, life does not stop. There’re locks to install on the battery door and the fuel door. I probably need to go onto the roof to seal more seams. I didn’t smell damp but something didn’t smell right the other day. I’m going with damp. Perhaps I should invest in some flex-seal spray? Another thing that’s on the agenda is possibly welding steel sheet over the back door lower window. I’d not done that before because my welding wasn’t very good. My welding is now a ton better. I can weld without burning through things these days though having said that I can burn through thick steel with 7014 rods quite well if I want to.