Monday, September 1st, 2008
Can you take 5 minute showers?
How long does it take to get clean in the shower? Is it 10 minutes? Did you know that a 10 minutes shower with a non-low flow shower head can use upwards of 80 gallons of water and generate up to 4 pounds of CO2, not to mention the cost of the energy to heat the water.
By installing a low flow shower head and cutting your shower time to 5 minutes you can reduce your water usages and CO2 emitted by 70-80%. I came across this tip as part of a community competition my family is participating in called the Energy Smackdown. To get started, spend a week just measuring how long of showers you take. Then try to reduce that to 5 minutes. Once you start measuring your showers, it may be hard to not reduce them. Don’t worry if you start taking shorter showers right away while establishing your base line.
My wife and I discovered some amusing things about our showers. Before we started tracking them, we both thought that I was taking the the long showers and she was taking the shorter ones. It turns out that I was averaging around 6 minute showers and she was closer to 8 minute showers. Now we’re down to around 4 minutes for me and just over 5 minutes for her. Be sure to have fun doing it or you’ll stop.
If you need help with a low flow shower head, check with your local hardware store. They are very easy to install and can save tons of water. The standard for low flow showerheads is 2.5 gallons per minute or less and some go as low as 1.6 gallons per minute. That is a major improvement over the 5-8 gallons per minute for the non-low flow variety.
References:
Referenced from the Energy Smackdown challenge around 5 minute showers:
Gershon,David (2007), Low Carbon Diet, A 30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds, Empowerment Institute, Woodstock, NY.
