Gallons of Water Used in the Shower

First lets see how much water does an average shower use? The average use of water in a shower depends on 2 things, how long the shower is, and what kind of water flow your shower head is rated at. Well first off I’m going to go by the average non water conserving shower head rating which is usually 5GPM – 8GPM! If you have read my How to Save Water Brushing Teeth information you know some of the numbers that you will be seeing just with a 4GPM, just think your shower is probably 8GPM rating and usually takes longer to shower, than to brush your teeth! So we will go with a 8GPM shower head as our non water conserving shower head.

Next, we need to figure out how long the shower will be. On average an adult will take a 10 minute shower if they are not in a hurry and 5 minute shower if they are in a hurry. The average teen will take a 15-20 minute shower if they are not in a hurry and a 10 minute shower if they are in a hurry! Most homes will have at least one teen showering, so I’m going to use the 15 minute shower as the average shower time for the rest of this water conservation information.

So how many gallons of water does an average 15 minute show use? A typical 15 minute shower will use 120 gallons! Now 75% of those 120 gallons is hot water, which is being paid to heat either by electric of gas! So 90 gallons from that 15 minute show is heated!

How Much Does an Average Shower Cost

Well if we are showering and using 120 gallons of water for each shower that’s around $0.36/shower just for the water, now you also have to pay to heat 90 gallons of that water! But I’m not going to do that much research just yet. Let’s bring this to a yearly rate. Each person that showers once a day will use 43,830 gallons of water a year! Which costs $131.49/year for every person!

How Do I Conserve Water While Showering

You can buy a new energy efficient or water efficient shower head, so instead of pumping out 8 gallons every minute you can get a low water consumption shower head that will use as little as 0.5 gallons every minute! You can also turn off your showers water until you need to rinse. Your showering procedure should be get in shower, turn on water, get wet/rinse off, turn water off, wash body, wash hair, turn on water, rinse, turn off water, put conditioner in your hair, turn water on, rinse hair, turn off water, and get out of shower! Using this method you will use a lot less water.

How Much Money Can I Save Showering

If you buy a 1.5GPM water saving shower head, and also turn off the water when you are not using it like I explained in the paragraph above you will save quite a bit of money. You will save money on your water bill, and also in your water heating bill whether it be electric or gas! Remember 75% of the water used diring a shower is hot water!

If you follow these tips you will save $129.85/year per person from switching from a 8GPM shower head running the entire shower time to a 1.5GPM low water efficient shower head only running during rinsing! Now I did not factor in the cost per gallon of hot water, as I have not calculated and tested to see how much it costs to heat 1 gallon of water. If I ever do calculate and test this I will add it to this information.

Here is a chart comparing the water usage of taking a shower using a non water conserving shower head vs. a shower using a low water usage shower head and turning off the water when not in use!

As you can see in the water usage chart above, taking a shower is expensive if you don’t use a 1.5GPM low water usage shower head and also turn off the water when you are not using it. Also remember I didn’t calculate in the gas or electric to heat 75% of those gallons of water! Which would make the cost of taking a shower even more, and you would save even more! But, so far I am just calculating just the water usage itself! I read that on average the heating of 1 gallon of water is $0.0025 so 75% of the gallons used you would multiply gallons of hot water by $0.0025 so on the 8GPM shower head for 1 person using 43,830 gallons a year, 75% of those gallons are hot water which would be 32,872.5 gallons of hot water which would cost $82.19/year to heat that hot water! Taking a shower my way and using a 1.5GPM shower head would use 547.875 gallons which 410.90625 gallons are hot water which would cost only $1.03/year to heat that water! So just in heating the water you are saving another $81.17/year in heating water for your shower!

Help conserve water and save money while taking a shower, go buy yourself a 1.5GPM water saving shower head that probably costs around $10.00 – $30.00! Which the water saving shower head will pay for itself in the savings it will produce! Even if you do not turn off the water during a shower, just replacing your non water conserving shower head with a low water consumption shower head will save you tons of money! Thanks for reading these water conservation tips while showering. Continure reading through Go Green in Your Home for more water conservation tips, go green tips, and also other money saving tips!

NOTE: I would recommend buying a 1.5GPM Low Water Usage Showerhead that has a quick on/off button/lever/switch built in. The reason I recommend this is that if you follow my steps of showering and turn on and off the water, you don’t have to readjust the water temperature. You can adjust when you first get in, then use the built in on/off button/lever to turn the water off until you are ready to use it again, then turn it back on with the quick on/off lever/button so you don’t have to readjust and waste time, water, and money while adjusting your water temperature again.

• Save money ($37.80/person/year)
• Save water (12,600 Gallons/person/year)
• Save Environment
• Less gas/electric to heat water
• Less wear and tear on your plumbing, valves, pumps, etc.
• Less electric to pump water.

Most people don’t think about it but you can save water and save money by turning off the water to your sink while you are brushing your teeth! Most homes have a 4GPM, Gallons Per Minute, fitting on their bathrooms and kitchen sinks or even higher!

How Much Water is Used While Brushing Teeth

If you are one of those people that don’t think about how much water your sink it putting out, you will probably leave your water running while you brush your teeth. The average person will turn on the water, rinse off tooth brush, put tooth paste on tooth brush, brush teeth, spit a couple times, brush a little more, rinse tooth brush off, use a mouth rinse or mouth wash, swish that around a bit, spit it out, rinse out sink, and finally turn off water. This process will usually take 2 – 3 minutes to complete. During those 3 minutes you just used 12 gallons of water! The average person brushes their teeth 2 – 3 times a day, which would now make your water usage is at 36 gallons of water per person per day. The average person will also brush their teeth everyday which I will use 30.5 days for a month to make up for those with 28, 30, and 31 days. So now we are up to a single person brushing their teeth uses 1098 gallons of water to brush a single person’s teeth every month! Now there are 365.25 days in a year, so how many gallons of water does a single person use a year while brushing their teeth? The answer is, 13,129 gallons a year! Now let’s move onto the cost of this water usage.

The average cost of water is $0.003/gallon. So if a single person uses 13,129 gallons of water a year to brush their teeth, this costs $39.45/year for 1 person to brush their teeth. So take $39.45 and multiply this by how many people live in your home and you will see how much water is costing you just for you to keep your teeth clean! Now I didn’t factor in using hot water, so if you are using hot water to brush your teeth you are also paying to have that water heated either in your electricity bill or gas bill.

How Do I Save Money Brushing My Teeth

So how can you save money while brushing your teeth? Turn your water off unless you are using it. Don’t turn on your water and just let it run in the sink while you are brishing your teeth! Also, do not use hot water to brush your teeth, the amount of water used waiting for hot water to arrive at the sink, and letting it run while you are brushing your teeth is wasting water and also wasting gas or electric to heat that water. So make sure when you and your family is brushing their teeth, use cold water and only cold water, and turn it off while you are not using it. Let’s do a sinple comparision chart of how much money you could save while brushing your teeth.

Buy a 2GPM or lower faucet fitting for your kitchen sink and bathroom sink, this will allow you to use 50% less watter, while the water is turned on. I have seen some 1.5GPM, 1.6GPM, and even 1GPM faucet fittings! The fitting is normally called an aerator, which screws into the faucet.

NOTE: If your faucet is newer than 1992 you already should have at least a 2.5GPM fitting on your faucet. Federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 requires that all faucet fixtures manufactured in the USA are to  restrict maximum water flow at or below 2.5GPM. So you shouldn’t be too bad, but you can still buy a more efficient fitting for your faucet! If your faucet was purchased before 1992 you probably have a faucet rated at 4GPM – 7GPM! So if your faucet is older than 1992, you NEED to buy a new one, the chart below is based off of 4GPM so if you have a 7GPM faucet then figure almost double the amounts!

I will base this off of letting water run while brushing your teeth using cold water, and compare it to turning off your water while brushing your teeth using cold water as well so I don’t have to factor in heating the water. Also remember you are also using a little bit if electricity to pump the water to the sink, which is not factored in either. So you will save more money on electric bill as well! This is a yearly chart:

Looking at this chart you aren’t saving a whole heck of a lot of money, but you are saving many gallons of water, and also saving a bit of money every year! So conserve water and save money and also help save the environment by going green in your home using these water conservation tips. For more tips on saving water or saving money on other utility bills continue reading throughout Go Green in Your Home!