Quick Saving Tip: Shorter Showers
When I was a kid, I would constantly hear my mom tell me I need to stop wasting so much water and take shorter showers. She would also use the fact that it costs so much to shower as a point to get me out of the shower. I now take showers around 5 minutes as it is not about the money, but more about conserving water. I will go further into how much money and water you can actually save by cutting your shower time down.
(Updated 2/17)If you would like to calculate how much water and energy you are using while taking a shower, please check out my Shower Calculator.
I first needed to find the average cost of water to begin my calculation of which I found was $2.00 per 1000 gallons. The next number I need was the number of gallons of water the average shower head uses per minute. This number was readily available on a number of sites and is 2.5 gallons per minute. I used these two numbers to figure out how much you would be save by showering 1 less minute.
That means that you an save a half of a penny for each minute you shower less. This doesn’t seem like a lot, but it can add up.
So that means you can save a little over $9 per year if you cut back on showering 5 minutes less in the shower per day. That doesn’t seem like a large savings, but you also have to consider the amount of water you are also saving. You will also be saving over 4500 gallons of water per year.
Comments
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July 16th, 2008
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July 16th, 2008Trackback from : Shower Water and Energy Use Calculator | Pays to Live Green
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July 16th, 2008Trackback from : Green consumerism « It’s Not Easy To Be Green
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July 16th, 2008Trackback from : Day 26: Less time in the shower | Tread Lightly
For more information on saving money and water, check out GreenPlumbersUSA.com for helpful “green plumbing” techniques. A running toilet can waste over 100 gallons per day!
Wow, those statistics are pretty sobering! I’ve started turning off the shower while I wash my hair and soap my body. That’s helped us to save water! Great post!!
A great way to help conserve water is using a bucket to catch the cold water while the shower is warming up. You can use the water for your plants and a lot of other things around the house.
The best way to conserve water when taking a bath is to, put the water into the pail, instead of taking shower
Auriette and Steven: Really great ways to reuse water that normallly gets wasted.
It such a nice way to calculate the water conservation. Its very helpful to save the water.
It’s a great idea! Nice calculations, math wasn’t my strong point so great that you’ve broken it down.
I think the water savings are far more impressive than the monetary value. In countries like Australia where there are real water problems every summer, this kind of statistic is really mind blowing…
Thanks for sharing.
This is one of the hardest areas for me to cut down but we recently moved to a new house with a much smaller hot water heater and it’s amazing how quickly you can adapt to having quicker showers or longer ones with much lower pressure.
We have a well and do not always consider the ‘cost’ of water since theres no monthly bill, but conserving water is a factor too. I have 3 children who have always shared bath water because there is no reason not to reuse it. But mom & dad, are we doing our part? Afraid that I have made no changes at all, I will need to work harder at this too!
It is also a good idea to put a bucket in the shower and then use this to water the plants.
My mom use to not let us use a blow dryer, to save money. Anyway, that is amazing that it’s monetary value is so low. It still should be done by everyone to save water.
Great post, I love it, Thank you very much
This winter I started skipping one shower per week — usually on Sat. or Sun. when I don’t have to go to work or anywhere important. I’ve found that it isn’t bad since it’s winter and you don’t sweat as much:) I’ve also noticed that my skin and hair doesn’t get dried out. My hair has actually become very shiny and manageable without harsh chemicals and hot water. I’m not sure I’ll stick to this once it warms up since I live in a area that easily reaches 90 degrees in the summer.
Also (this might gross some of you out) — I don’t flush the toilet every single time I pee. Obviously, I do flush if I’ve gone #2 (sorry to be so blunt). I usually flush every other time. Just be sure you flush before you have guests over — not everyone is water conscious. However, I can see a day in the not-so-distant future when flushing less will be required.