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Environmentally friendly shower habits
There's nothing like a hot, relaxing shower. I freely admit it, if I were able, I'd sit under a hot shower for 30 minutes! Let's see - a standard shower head uses 15-18 litres (approximately 4 gallons) a minute, so if I had my 30 minute shower, it would chew up an incredible 500+ litres (around 100 gallons) of water!
Sure, the 30 minutes is somewhat exagerrated usage, but even at the average of 7-8 minutes per shower, it's still an awful lot of wasted water - over a hundred litres (25 gallons). When I was in the outback of Australia where water was scarce, I found I could have a perfectly good shower using only 10 litres (just over 2 gallons) of water! During my days as a fisherman, sometimes I had to make do with 2 litres; but that was a little rough given the rather smelly working environment :).
There's not only the water wastage, but the energy used to heat the water to take into account. Traditional hot water services are one of the major chewers of gas and electricity in any home.
You can save substantially on water wastage by simply using a water saver shower head. They can be purchased for under $20 and for your cash, you'll save around 50% on your shower water use just like that! For the average family, that can translate into savings of approximately 75,000 litres (around 17,000 gallons) per year. Rather incredible isn't it? Not only that, but you'll save a stack of cash on electricity or gas.
If you want to make even greater savings on top of that, both for your wallet and for the environment, consider a solar hot water system.
Other environmentally friendly shower related tips:
- Use shampoos and soaps that are kind to the planet; that waste water has to go somewhere
- Use a bucket in the shower to collect water that can then be used on your garden
- By slicing a single minute off each shower, a family can save a further 12400 litres (2750 gallons) of water a year - even when using a water saver shower head!
Do you have added earth friendly showering tips to share? Add them below :)
Michael Bloch
Green Living Tips.com
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Comments
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Comment #1
(Posted by Fred Rahaming)
I enjoyed your artical, worked as a building maintenance supervisor for more than 25 yrs. Know the importance of water and energy savings. Developed a gadget 10 yrs ago that I still use in the shower... helps save on our utilities take a look tell me what you think: http://itjustmakessense.net
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Comment #2
(Posted by Michael - Green Living Tips)
Hey Fred, that's a really interesting invention! Thanks for posting about it!
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Comment #3
(Posted by Lacey)
Of course, there's always the option of not-showering. It sounds gross, but I've not showered for months--but I'm not disgusting :D
During a recent drought, I took to sink-bathing to save on water, which uses about half a gallon of water (most of that for hair). A good scrub-down with a washcloth and rinsing hair out with a few cups of water works just fine. A bit cold in winter, but it saves tons of gallons of water (and since I only use hot water in the winter, it saves on water-heating, too). I've taken to scrubbing my hair with a solution of baking soda and water (if you let it sit for a day, it will suds like shampoo).
I invite y'all to give it a try :)
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Comment #4
(Posted by paisa89)
Back in mexico in the winter, since we dont have anything to heat the water we would just boil the water to warm it up and put it in a large bucket and we used that water, we wet ourselves and rinsed ourselves off and since i am a woman i needed two buckets (since women tend to have longer hair to was and shave their legs). but it was a great way to save water that i used when i came to the states to save water.
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Comment #5
(Posted by SD)
To reduce water use in the submarine service, only use water as and when needed. In short:
1) turn on water, rinse body for ~15s to make self wet, then turn of water.
2) Shampoo hair, then lather up body from top to toe. By working down, any lather dropped from your hair onto your body gets used maybe saving more soap.
3) Turn on water, *quickly* rinse from top to toe. 30-45s should be enough.
Shower complete, and only 3-4 gallon used. And if you're sporting short hair, that dries in no time.
Finally, use a hand flannel to wipe yourself down - wringing it out when wet - and you will just be damp, not wet. Finally you can use a hand towel to dry off - which will save on the size of the laundry later on (hand flannel and towel vs large bath towel).
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