Want To Go Green? Use A Low Flow Shower Head

If you’re looking to go green, one of the best places to start is by taking a look at one of our daily rituals: taking a shower. Have you ever thought about how much water is used for showering and where it comes from?

The EPA estimates that showering accounts for 17 percent of indoor residential water use in the United States. That amounts to an astounding 3.3 billion gallons of water per day, and 1.2 trillion gallons per year. This virtual ocean of water is being removed from delicate ecosystems, causing great harm to the environment. While some of this water returns to the environment through water treatment plants, much of it does not or does so only with pollution. It should be no surprise, then, that increasing water efficiency must be a top priority of governments and individuals seeking to make a difference for the environment.

One of the best ways to save water is to install a water-saving, low flow shower head. These shower heads are engineered with advanced technology that manipulates a lower flow of water in powerful ways so that you sacrifice none of the luxury and comfort you are accustomed to in your showering routine. Technology varies from creatively desiging orifices to focus the stream and control the size of water droplets, to showerheads injecting air into the water stream to increase the blast.

Low flow shower heads typically use 1.5 to 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm). By contrast, older or non-efficient fixtures use more than 2.5 gpm, with those older than 15 years sometimes using more than 7 gallons per minute!

Not sure if you need one of these water saving shower heads? Do this test: place a bucket marked in gallons under your shower head, then turn on the shower at its normal rate. Use a watch to see how many seconds it takes to fill the bucket to the one-gallon mark. If it takes 20 seconds or less then you definitely need a low flow shower head because you’re using a lot more water than necessary.

You also save money in addition to saving water and the environment. Whereas a low flow fixture could run you as little as $15 (a bit more for higher quality ones), the 20% or more in water savings you’d realize would translate to $50-$75 a year on water bills and another $20-$50 a year on energy bills for heating the water. In other words, the showerhead pays for itself almost immediately.

Installing a new shower head is easy. You usually just unscrew the old one, screw in the new one, and you’re done!

If going green matters to you, there is every reason to change to a water saving shower head. It’s so easy to do yet makes such a big difference for the environment and your wallet, all without sacrificing one bit of luxury.

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