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 :)