Go Green in Your Home

You can conserve water while you are showering just by following 2 simple tips. The first tip is buying an energy efficient shower head, and the other tip cost you nothing, just by turning off the water while you are not rinsing your body or hair.

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.