After an exhausting day, a long, hot shower with the water pressure at full-blast sounds perfectly relaxing. Showers, however, are one of the biggest culprits that generate water waste in your home. Showers account for 22% of water use in North America, sending gallons of fresh drinking water down the drain as you lather up. The easiest way to reduce this number, obviously, is by shortening your shower time or taking fewer showers, which can help cut down on the 340 billion gallons of water used in the U.S each day.
There are also inexpensive, easy-to-install devices to make your showers more efficient, including low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators. Conventional showerheads can use anywhere from 2.5 to 5 gallons per minute, but using a low-flow showerhead that is easy to install can reduce that number to 1 to 1.5 gpm. Reducing water during your shower, however, doesn’t mean giving up water pressure. Faucet aerators mix air into the water stream to produce an even spray that allows you to enjoy the pressure of a conventional showerhead while consuming less water.
Take Action / Next Steps
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Find how a low-flush toilet can help save money and water on ecomii
Did you know that installing a low-flow showerhead can save you $100 per year?
Low-flow showerheads are in expensive and easy to install and can reduce your home water
consumption and energy costs by up to 50% while making your showers more efficient. An efficient showerhead costs about $15
and will save you about $10 per person each year from water-heating costs alone.
Did you know that you could be using 50 gallons of water each time you shower?
The current standard for new showerhead output is 2.5 gallons per minute, but older models may
use up to 5 gallons per minute. At that rate, a ten-minute shower consumes 50 gallons of drinking water. A family of four
taking five-minute showers uses about 700 gallons of water per week, which is equal to a three-year drinking supply for one
person in the U.S.
SOURCES :
1. Freed, Eric Corey. Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies, pp. 46-47, 264. Wiley Publishing, 2008.
2. Johnston, David and Kim Master. Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time, 218. British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 2004.
3. Hawkin, Paul, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, p. 220. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1999.
