If you’re looking to go green, one of the best places to start is by taking a look at one of our daily rituals: taking a shower. Have you ever stopped to think about how much water is used for showering and where it comes from?
The EPA estimates that showering accounts for 17 percent of indoor residential water use in the United States. That amounts to an astounding 3.3 billion gallons of water per day, and 1.2 trillion gallons per year. This virtual ocean of water is being removed from delicate ecosystems, causing great harm to the environment. While some of this water returns to the environment through water treatment plants, much of it does not or does so only with pollution. It should be no surprise, then, that lower water use should be a top priority of governments and individuals trying to make a difference for the environment.
One of the best ways to save water is to install a water-saving, low flow shower head. These shower heads are made in ways that manipulate the flow of water so that it’s lower without sacrificing any of the luxury or comfort you’re accustomed to in your showering routine. Technology varies from creatively desiging orifices to focus the stream and control the size of water droplets, to showerheads injecting air into the water stream to increase the blast.
Low flow shower heads typically use 1.5 to 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm). By contrast, older or non-efficient fixtures use more than 2.5 gpm, with those older than 15 years sometimes using more than 7 gallons per minute!
Not sure if you need one of these water saving shower heads? Do this test: put a bucket that’s marked in gallons under your shower head, then turn on the shower at the normal rate you would use. Use a watch to record how many seconds it takes to fill the bucket to the one-gallon point. If it takes less than 20 seconds then you definitely need a low flow shower head because you’re using way more water than necessary.
You also save money in addition to saving water and the environment. Whereas a low flow fixture could run you as little as $15 (a bit more for higher quality ones), the 20% or more in water savings you’d realize would translate to $50-$75 a year on water bills and another $20-$50 a year on energy bills for heating the water. In other words, the showerhead pays for itself almost immediately.
Installing a new shower head is easy. You usually just unscrew the old one, screw in the new one, and you’re done!
If going green matters to you, there is every reason to change to a water saving shower head. There’s not much else you can do that is so easy and makes such a big difference for both the environment and your wallet without sacrificing one bit of luxury.
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