Pressurized solar shower

  Pressurized solar shower. I have a 3 gallon sprayer which is meant for orchard use. It's dark green and warms up just about as well as a black shower bag. I lay this tank on its side facing the sun resting on a piece of memory foam to insulate the shaded side for greater efficiency. Since most of my camping is done in the city at  demolition sites I often cheat and fill my container up with hot water at a gas station

    Once the container is heated I pump it up and place it in a high position with the spray wand propped in the right direction. The trigger has a lock which allows hands-free operation and the nozzle is adjustable from a solid stream like a squirt gun to a very fine mist. Set midway between these extremes the sprayer provides a comfortable shower while using very little water.

    If this system were scaled up to a 40 gallon tank in a cottage situation you could have an open non-pressurized batch system consisting of a tank in a breadbox style solar collector which has an open valve at the top. Once this tap is closed the tank is ready to pressurize with either a bicycle pump or from your compressor.

    If a pressure relief valve were included and the tank were only filled one quarter of the way, pressure could be allowed to build up naturally as the air expands. But with the pre-pressurized system you wouldn't have the option of adding cold water to the mix. A separate hot air expansion tank could provide this pressure and would allow for temperature adjustment before use.

      Of course decent shower pressure can be obtained by placing the tank 20 feet in the air, but in any situation where water is pumped by hand or delivered to the heater in pails a tank mounted at waist height would be convenient to load, have minimal piping and and could be safely supported. A foot pump could be permanently affixed just outside of the shower for emergency pressure top up.

I've read a fair bit of what you post Dale,most interesting has been that most of your camping is done at demolition sites within the city .

I like the thought process behind the hand pumped sprayer,I deffinately will be trying this one out..allbeit for fun.I was thinking of gravity fed outside bath/shower,solar heated with a 12volt solar pump to aquire pressure,not a huge amount but,pressure just the same.

       One important thing to remember when you plan to pressurize your water with a pump is to leave plenty of airspace since water is not very compressible but air is hugely compressible. I tried it with an almost full tank and had to stop several times to recharge since I was working with a very small airspace.

     Using a batch system which is pressurized after the water is hot makes it simple for you to add some cold and get the right temperature. With systems that are connected to the city main overheated water can't just be topped up with cold water so easily.   

    I'm sure you've heard of the black hose in the sun trick. This works a whole lot better if the hose is coiled up on a wooden deck and covered with clear plastic. And uncovered hose radiates plenty of heat back to the air around it.

    I've had plenty of baths inside a large black garbage can. I placed this can on the south side of the house tight against the siding for reflected light and covered with clear plastic. On several occasions I've had customers show up to buy recycled building materials while I'm bare ass inside the garbage can

"On several occasions I've had customers show up to by recycled building materials while I'm bare ass inside the garbage can."

Recycled materials biz,now that explains your camping spots.
Yeah we live out bush in Australia and the black poly-pipe for heating water is already in use,while not our primary heating source it does for an outside shower.Thats where I want to put the 12volt pump..between the poly and shower head.Further down the track(Our bush block is new to us)I'd like a solar heatbank set-up for primary hot water,after all we get wicked sunshine out our way,even in winter.