The Rainwater Pillow is a flexible alternative to a rain barrel. Able to hold significantly more water than conventional barrels, the pillow can be placed underneath decking, in a floorspace or any other such ground level hidden space. The water collected can then be used in a garden or even to flush toilets.

The Rainwater Pillow is designed to take advantage of even short sharp showers, collecting heavy rainfall effectively in minutes. It does this by taking all the rainfall from a houses guttering system, filtering in and due to gravity the water is pulled into the pillow for storage through wide piping to ensure effective and fast collection. Two overflow pipes ensure that the pillow never overfills or ruptures.

By collecting rainwater you can reduce your household water bills (especially if on a water meter) as the water can be used for gardening, cleaning cars and other outdoors objects and even for flushing toilets. It also helps to reduce the amount of water entering drains and so reduces water requiring processing in water treatment facilities. This collected water can also be used in times of drought when water restrictions are applied. Rain barrels do allow for this but do not easily accommodate a hose pipe, and cisterns can take up a lot of space or require a great amount of planning if they are to be placed below ground. The pillow instead takes advantage of unused spaces and with its pump system the water can be accessed conveniently for outdoors use.

The Rainwater Pillow comes with all the basics needed for installation on your property, including an installation manual and DVD. The system comes with two filters to be placed onto your drainpipes to filter the water run off from your roof to ensure the water entering the pillow is free from debris. It also includes a 25 psi water pump, this pump will be able to provide you with 10-12 gallons of water per minute out of things like a hose, this is comparable to a standard hose attached to a tap. The pump is controlled by a remote control so that by connecting a hose and pressing a button you are able to water your garden, green house or even wash a car.

The pillows come in a range of sizes, the standard basic size has a 1000 gallon capacity, but there are pillows for up to a 40000 gallon capacity. The Rainwater Pillows can be made to custom specifications to allow them to fit in any available ground level space like that within a crawl space, under decking, in a greenhouse and such like. The standard 1000 gallon pillow measures 9 ft x 11 ft x 2.5 ft (275 cm x 335 cm x 76 cm) and needs a clearance height of at least 3 ft (91 cm) to accommodate the pillow expanding with water.

The rainwater pillow varies between $2,500 and $4,500, depending on what capacity you opt for.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Rainwater Storage Pillow article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

The Petal Drops gadget is a water-saving concept by Pieter Laga on the social product development website Quirky. Following an initial design proposal by Pieter, other individuals got involved by making suggestions for the product name, the logo design and product development.

The Petal Drops design is a flower-shaped funnel made from 100% recycled high density polyethene (HDPE) that fits onto a standard threaded drinks bottle. The device makes it trivial to capture rainwater, which you can use for watering your garden or indoor plants.

If enough people commit to buying the product (which in this case has been set at 550 units), then the gadget will be manufactured and shipped. People interested in the unit can commit to a purchase by buying a unit. Your credit card is only charged if the unit is manufactured, and the unit is only manufactured if there are enough buyers.

You can read more about the Quirky social development process, as well as get involved in other newly submitted projects. I’m sure we’ll hear more about Quirky in time, but it sound as if it’s a fantastic concept for using the wisdom of crowds to develop products with a market.

Interested in the Petal Drops product? Well you can pre-purchase a unit on the Petal Drops product page.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Water Conservation with Petal Drops Raincatcher article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

The Shower Brake is a concept design to help reduce the amount of water used in showers. The device slowly falls throughout the shower visually alerting you to how much water is being used.

The Shower Brake, designed by Sang-in Lee and Dae Hyun Kim, has been conceived from the idea that we all forget just how long we are spending in a shower and that having a reminder or a timer will help us be quicker and use the time more efficiently. This should then reduce the amount of water used in having a shower and so save on both energy used to heat the water and on water bill costs.

The controls for temperature and water pressure are located on the device which needs to be moved up to start a shower, giving you an alloted amount of water for your shower. You can set the device up only half  the way for a very quick shower so you have control as to how quickly you wish to shower. The device slowly falls steadily over time at a rate proportionate to the amount of water you are using.

If you have the pressure set high then the device will fall quickly and conversely if you set the pressure lower it will fall slower. The device then helps to show visually the difference in water consumption. Once the device has decended to the bottom it will need to be moved back up to allow more water, this is meant to inspire a feeling of guilt in the user making them feel that they have wasted water by not washing quickly enough.

The concept design has benefits to those who step into a shower and lose all sense of time while feeling the warmth of the water on them. It may help people like them by showing visually that time is running out, they need to get on and wash rather than languish in the heat. However a shower can be for enjoyment as well as for cleaning and it’s hard to believe many will really feel too guilty about moving the device back up again. By moving it up though they are then consciously making the choice to use more water and energy for the pleasure of the shower, without any excuse about losing track of time.

Source: Yanko Design

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the The Shower Brake – Shower Water Saving Gadget article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

Industrial designer Jacky Wu has designed a simple artificial leaf to aid us in our plant watering.  This concept design has been named Dew Drop and aims to keep your plants watered without you ever needing to move a watering can.

The Dew Drop works from the basic principles of condensation, thereby extracting the water vapour out of the air and letting it run into your plant pot.  By simply placing the artificial leaf into the plant pot and plugging it in you should be ensuring your plant stays watered, with the water in the air condensing on the leaf and being funneled down into the plant pot.

Unless you happen to run your house solely from solar power (or any other green electricity source) the green benefits of such a device seem limited. Though you would obviously save yourself a small amount of water use, the power needs of such a device could render it pointless and may even make it a more harmful way for you to water your plants.  It may also have a limited effect in a building that has air conditioning (AC) or a dehumidifier, as the water vapour in the air will have already been removed to some extent from the area.

The Dew Drop should water your plant well in the right environment and would certainly be useful to those who easily forget to water their plants.  How natural it would look though to have multiple plants trailing electrical leads is another matter.

Source: Yanko Design

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the The Dew Drop – Automatic Plant Watering Through Condensation article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

Ecocamel FIXED Aerated Showerhead is easily added to a shower to save both water and energy. Though it uses a lot less water than a conventional showerhead, due to its design and technology, it produces a ’spa like’ shower feel.

The Aerated Showerhead uses up to 60% less hot water than other shower heads. A conventional showerhead usually uses 12 litres of water a minute (a power shower can use up to 25 litres a minute) where as the Ecocamel Aerated shower head has been independantly tested by Liverpool John Moores University to only use 7 litres a minute. The showerhead has 36 little ports that produce a low splash spray pattern which should also give a high impact rinse. The technology of the showerhead then uses less water but leaves you feeling as clean as after a conventional showerhead.

The Ecocamel Aerated Showerhead has a sleak modern look due to its chrome exterior design and internal brass fittings. Due to a removable face plate it should be easy to clean to stop the showerhead getting clogged up and scaling.

By using less water it saves money on heating water. Estimates on a family of four taking daily 5 minute showers indicate it would use 40,150 litres less water a year and so would save up to £250 off bills for heating the water and water rates.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the The Aerated Showerhead By Ecocamel article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

With it being the wet season, particularly in Europe, it makes sense to collect as much rain water as possible ready for the spring. Due to growing populations, clean water is becoming increasingly scarce. Rather than use fresh drinking water to water your garden, why not just collect rain water? It’s free! If space is an issue, a wall-mounted water butt is a simple device to collect rain water without needing a large garden.

Another great use of rain water is for washing cars and windows. Usually, any sediment falls to the bottom of a water tank, which means the water is certainly clean enough to do some cleaning with it.

The water butt can hold a total of 100 litres (22 gallons) of rain water, which is collected from the down-pipe from the guttering typically found on UK homes. Once the water tank is full, the extra water flows out the overflow, which is basically down the downpipe underneath the water tank. This means you can install the water tank, and then forget it, as it looks after itself.

The kit includes all fixtures and fittings, including a tap and connectors to your guttering downpipe. Made from black UV protected Polyethylene, the tank measures 46cm (w) x 23 cm (d) x 122cm (h). The 100 litre water butt costs £99, and you can also get larger water tanks too.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Wall-Mounted Rain Water Butt article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

The Efergy Shower Timer is a simple gadget that helps you save water when having a shower, simply by beeping when it’s time to get out. If you have an electric shower, you’ll save on your energy bills as well as your water consumption. Once you’ve calibrated the timer, you simply press ’start’ when you get into the shower, and the timer will beep when your time’s up!

You calibrate the timer by measuring how long it takes to fill up the provided 1 litre bag. This allows you to then choose the maximum length of time you want to spend in the shower. The recommendation is to only use 35 litres of water when having a shower, and so the timer automatically calculates how long that takes in reality.

If you have a large family, you could use the shower timer to encourage everyone to get out of the bathroom quickly in the morning! If everyone has the same amount of time in the shower, it should theoretically mean fewer bathroom arguments!

The Efergy Shower Timer is available for £7.99 from Home4Eco.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Water and Energy Saving Efergy Shower Timer article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

If you don’t have the money to upgrade your toilet cistern every few years, you’ve probably got a pretty water-inefficient toilet. Replacing the toilet is not a minor job, as a change in tanks might require the need for new tiles or wallpapering. A lot of hassle, expense and not particularly eco-friendly due to the re-decorating it would require. However, there’s now a way of saving toilet water using your existing tank, by installing a variable flush system, called the Perfect Flush.

The Perfect Flush eco gadget is an affordable electronic device costing just $100, which retrofits onto existing toilet tanks. The device is simple enough to be installed by any DIY enthusiast as it uses existing fixtures and fittings on a toilet to control how much water is used per flush. This means you can choose between a quick and a long flush depending on what business you do in the loo! (I was trying to be discrete… ).

Just installing the device will save between 30% to 50% of the water needed to flush the toilet, meaning you save money straight away. In just 1 to 2 years, you earn your money back with Perfect Flush. So you’ll save money, as well as save water, which are both great reasons to use a water saving widget.

Source: Perfect Flush

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Perfect Flush – Toilet Water Saving Gadget article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

The Small Wonder device is a gadget that reduces limescale build up in your pipes by using electromagnetic fields to alter the chemical makeup of hard water. It’s the dissolved calcium and magnesium mineral salts that cause limescale to deposit in your pipes, kettle, water boilers. The Small Wonder gadget uses the electromagnetic field to keep the mineral salts as a suspension, which decreases salt saturation in the water, and therefore helps the softened water to dissolve existing limescale deposits.

One significant eco benefit to the Small Wonder, is that it’s been designed as an alternative to using chemicals to soften your hard water. These water-softening chemicals have been shown to be corrosive to domestic plumbing systems as well as having harmful environmental effects. Reducing limescale deposits in your heating system and your washing machine have been shown to reduce energy consumption too. This is because limescale acts as an insulator within pipes, which means more energy is needed to heat water in limescale-lined pipes. There are plenty more benefits to the Small Wonder, but I’ve covered the highlights.

Electronic water softeners are pretty cheap to run, and this one only costs $10 a year to run. It’s a great alternative to using chemicals, but yet it’s just as effective. You can also get static magnet water softening systems, but they can be dangerous around pacemakers and many gadgets. Electric water softners are also much easier to install, since they don’t need a plumber or for you to cut any pipes.

The Small Wonder is available for $179 with free shipping in the US.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Small Wonder – Electronic Hard Water Treatment Gadget article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!

The amusingly named Fatboy Tank is a large water vessel designed for your garden to store an impressive 650 gallons of harvested rain water. The tanks only measure 7′6″ (2.29m) w x 6’7″ (2m) h x 2′4″ d (0.71m) and are designed to be free-standing on a level area of ground. The tank is made from a UV stabilised high density polyethylene, which means light does not penetrate the tanks and therefore prevents algae from growing inside the tanks.

The tanks come with a range of fixtures and fittings, namely two overflow pipes, three inlet sections, and two brass taps to allow you to get water out of the tank. The taps are around knee height, which means there is plenty of water pressure to force out the water down a hose. The tanks are available in four different colours, namely autumn brown, cream, brick red and deep green.

Unfortunately there is no pricing information on the website, but the manufacturer lists a number of distributors.

Source: Waterwall Tanks

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Waterwall Fatboy Tank – Huge Rainwater Storage Vessels article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can follow EnviroGadget on Twitter here!