The only way to stop is to stop. A shower ends when you end it. Good luck in whatever you do.

I hold you in high disdain for your self-indulgent attitude.

I hereby punish you by ordering you into your shower for 40 minutes. Now shut up and go...lol.

Hey, it's your life, your choice. Do what you want to do. What, is AlGore making you feel guilty? When he gives up his private jet and downsizes out of his 11000 sqft house, hey, then he can preach.

Seriously, build what you want. Were you asking for a 5000 sqft house, I'd say re-evaluate your priorities, and that's only because you're asking for feedback.

You're grown adult who is asking for an extra 25 minutes a week in the shower, or an average of an extra 3 minutes a day of hot water.

Build your hide-a-way and enjoy it.

If you want to conserve, build a tight envelope in your new house. Foam or dense-packed insulation. That'll reduce heating loads in the winter and cooling loads in the summer.

I have read some of the post by the conservation police; however, you are asking for very little. I say GO FOR IT! If you're really worried about energy and water use, then do something else to make up for the tiny bit of extra time you spend in the shower once a week - grey water harvesting for the garden, super insulate for a tight envelope as has been suggested, energy star appliances and light bulbs. And then, absolve yourself for this one indulgence and enjoy your shower.

We built a double headed shower - the idea being that when the two of us shower together we each have our own shower head. I quickly discovered how wonderful standing alone in what I call "the vortex" between the two shower sprays can be. I always use both shower heads when I shower, and I also occasionally exceed 10 minutes in the shower - and I don't feel one bit guilty about it.

One of the reasons I am installing a steam shower, is that it only uses 1 gallon of water per 20 minutes (something like that).

If my late night mental math is working, that is about an hour of running water for your showers a week, which seems fairly reasonable. 20-30 minutes in one go is incredibly indulgent, but 4 minute showers are positively ascetic. If you are planning multiple shower heads, you should look at the total number of gallons per minute and evaluate that number in terms of reasonable gallons per week used. Are you using a water-saver shower head(s)? That would be good.

As for a water heater, I think you should consider the tankless kind which, in addition to energy savings, would provide you with that once a week luxury.

you might also want to look at a drainwater heat recovery unit, which will recover 50% of the heat that goes down the drain. it's about $1000 and has a kinda long payback, but it might make you feel a little more green in your long showers, and effectively increase the capacity of your water heater.

chillcox: Can you please tell me more about this drainwater heat recovery unit? What type of hot water heater will this work with? My DH would really like a solar hot water heater. We've also considered a tankless system, but I don't know if that will be enough. Are there any energy rebates for the DHR unit? Also do you know if there is anything on the market to convert graywater to flush your toilets? Thanks for the suggestion!

Even if you take a long shower every day that would not make you a bad person. If you kick a dog and take a short shower every day well then *that* makes you a bad person. If you judge other people and their self-soothing mechanisms then that could make you a bad person.

I think your shower sounds like heaven and I want you to have the best, most special You Time!

Happy New Year. xo

While greywater and energy recovery thru water are nice , they are rarely practical form a $$$ perspective ESPECIALLY when retrofitted. Don't get your hopes up.

Given your shower needs you should seriously think about your water heating needs. Lets say you have two features running at once, shower head and 3 bodysprays at 2 gal/min each. That's a total of 4 gallons a minute demand and you will exhaust a 50 gallon water heater tank in about 12 minutes. Want three features at once and you're down to about a 5 minute shower.

An on demand heater is great for these type applications - BUT - there are some drawbacks. One sized for your needs is going to be expensive, around $2000 +. Then install location can be tricky - you can't just put it anywhere. Then there is your gas supply - you'll need 200,000 btu to run the thing and you also need to supply your other appliances at the same time and your piping system needs to be sized correctly too.

I'd suggest you enlist a bath designer, and/or a plumber that's had experience with these types of showers.

There are also control questions to work out AND if your friendly "big brother" gets his way these things will soon be outlawed - you will only be able to run one 2.2 gal/min shower head off a valve PERIOD!

It is new construction so it won't be a retrofit job. And I think we want two separate heads (on opposite walls) and a rain head overhead. I can't quite bring myself to get body jets though they are nice. We have to be able to control the heads independently of one another, especially if my shower during the workweek overlaps with DH. He likes his rather lukewarm and I like mine hot.

EVen in new construction, this isn't going to be exactly an inexpensive option. You have to plan the whole system for "worst case scenario" rather than the more common everyday usage. A tankless water heater that only supplies one or two of your MB shower features while the tanked heater supplies the others might be the best way to go to give you your once a week indulgence. However, it won't be an inexpensive indulgence. A tankless able to supply enough heat rise to run 2 shower features at once will run you around $1200-$2000. It will need to have it's own separate supply line for the gas it will consume. As Antss said, you're talking 199BTU+. And although a gas tankless unit is smaller than a conventional tank unit and can conceivable be located in a master closet location close to the master bath, there are still some pricy requirements about their venting needs that need to be considered. THe double wall stainless vent pipe isn't cheap, and if you have a long way to go to penetrate the roof, then you may have just incurred another 1K of expense for the project. And there's the additional labor for the install, probably another $500-1K, depending on complexity.

If your home doesn't have natural gas available, then electric on demand units are also available, but your home's electrical requirements just doubled, and you have to factor in a much larger service drop from the pole in the beginning as well as a larger service panel installed. Only your utility company and electrician can tell you how much that will add to your expense. The biggest bonus to electrical is that they do not require venting, and thus are easier to place in the home. However, they really do not save you but about 1-3% over a standard tanked electric heater, so it will be difficult to recoup the much higher initial up front costs without being in the home for 30 years. A better choice for someone who has an electrical only home would simply be an additional 80 gallon tank dedicated feeding those 2 extra features that you only turn on on Friday night and then turn off on Saturday after your shower. An 80 gallon tank with a 9 year warranty would run you around $800 here, plus the extra pipe needed to do the runs, you might only be looking at an additional 1K in systems materials to have your shower---PLUS the cost of the controls and the trims and valves for those features. You can figure out the additional operating costs of running your once a week shower from your utility rates and water consumption rates of the features you are considering.

Other considerations to having such a shower would be the ventilation needed to ensure that the additional moisture was correctly removed from the home. With a vent fan needing to run for such a long period due to the long shower times, a cold climate bath might need an ERV unit attached to keep from exhausting so much conditioned air to the exterior.

ON the whole, you're talking about adding around 5K extra to your project for a once a week indulgence. NOt a lot of money up front, and as I said, you'd need to look at the utility costs to be able to determine operating costs. But once a week shouldn't be onerous unless you live in a water restricted environment where water is expensive or tightly regulated. Unfortunately, more and more of "regular" America are encountering water restrictions. Much of the South was under water restrictions a couple of years ago and Lake Lanier outside Atlanta was almost dry. Check into your municipalites water sources and the possibiltiy of them encountering issues during drought times if you want to really be clear of any ecological impact of your decision. But, the good thing about putting just the "feature sprays" on a separate supply is that you don't have to use them during water restrictions if your area encounters them. Your everyday shower heads are the ones tied to your home's main water heating supply, and those can be "ultra low flow" heads if need be.

While reading your description of "decadent" shower in the other thread, I realized it's very much like our own planned shower update. I'm very glad to hear you enjoyed that shower and look forward to getting ours finished.

The idea of it being a decadent choice never even came to mind until reading this.

Great information here to consider, so thanks for bringing it up and enjoy your new shower.

In case my & LWO's takes didn't scare you off, they should at least make you realize that you need an experienced designer / professional help with this one. No one has mentioned the larger drain that you'll need for that shower either!

Someone once said "There is only one commandment; do as thou wilt". IOW, all restraints or inhibitions should be disregarded, your personal desire of the moment must be obeyed, otherwise you're not "true to yourself".
Casey

Here is a link that might be useful: Quotation source

The drainwater heat recovery units will preheat any cold water coming in from the city. It works well with tankless systems because it will reduce the temperature rise that the unit will have to handle. This only works during showers though, so if you have a large tub or something like that, you may still need to upsize the tankless unit to handle that flow.

The website below indicates that it's good for solar hot water as well, but I'm not sure if you'd want to preheat the water before you send it outside to the solar collectors, or heat after it returns from the solar collectors.

You'll have to check with your utility for rebates on the drainwater heat recovery unit. http://www.dsireusa.org/ is a good place to start with looking for incentives and see if there are any state rebates as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: EnergySavers.gov Drainwater Heat Recovery