Let’s be honest, our daily shower routine may not be the most efficient (see image). But apart from saving us some time, taking shorter showers can dramatically help conserve water and energy. Showering is one of the biggest uses of water in the home, representing approximately 17% of residential indoor water use, or more than 1.2 trillion gallons of water consumed in the United States each year (1).
The Windom YES! team is just wrapping up their shower competition. Earlier this semester the team handed out shower logs to over 70 of their peers to record the length of their showers. Students are now turning them in to the team for a chance to win an iTunes gift card. After a successful first semester in the High School they may soon bring this to the elementary school!
Learn a little more about you can conserve water too:
- Shortening your shower to about 5 minutes or less helps conserve water and the energy it takes to heat that water. Set a timer, or play a song to help let you know when you’ve reached that 5 minute mark.
- Calculate your water savings with the EPA Water Conservation Plan Guidelines benchmarking document.
- Set a 2qt. saucepan on the floor of the shower and position it in the middle of the shower stream. With shower on full, count how many seconds it takes to fill the pan. If it takes fewer than 12 seconds, you could use a low-flow shower head (2).
- Alternatively, check on your shower head for a label of how many gallons per minute (gpm) it streams. A ‘low-flow’ shower head will read 2.5 gpm or less.
- Wasting Water is Weird
- Save Water Today
1 http://www.epa.gov/watersense/our_water/water_use_today.html
2 http://eartheasy.com/live_lowflow_aerators.htm
