3 Things You Can do To Save Water in the Shower

Everything we do, from the food we eat to the energy we use heating and cooling our homes requires water. Water is both a scarce resource and a precious commodity, so it’s only natural to be interested in ways to save water.

If you are environmentally conscious, saving water in the shower is one of the ways in which you can contribute to the global water conservation efforts. Here are three simple ideas how you can cut down on water usage while washing up

Showerheads are measured by the number of gallons of water they deliver per minute.  Efficient showerheads, called “low flow,” deliver between 1.6 and 2.5 gallons per minute, whereas a standard showerhead delivers between 5 and 8 gallons per minute.

You can buy a low flow showerhead for as little as $10 at any hardware or home goods store. This simple switch can save you and the planet up to 6.4 gallons of water for every minute of shower time. While you’re shopping, look for a showerhead with a shutoff feature. This genius mechanism cuts water to a trickle while you lather your hair, brush your teeth, or soap up your kids.

This seems obvious, but on average, every minute of shower time equates to 2 gallons of water, and the shower of an average American lasts 8 minutes. If you shower daily, cutting back your shower time by just a minute could save sixty gallons of water per month.

Some easy tricks for ensuring shorter showers are to set a timer using your phone or even an old-fashioned egg timer. Creating a 7-minute shower playlist can jazz up your morning ritual and serve as a useful reminder of when your shower time is nearing an end.

Sticking to a get-clean routine helps as well, so you don’t dawdle while deciding whether to wash your face or shave your legs. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, if every American cut their shower time by one minute, we would save 165 billion gallons of water per year. That’s almost 250,000 Olympic-size swimming pools!

The average bath uses 35 to 50 gallons of water, while an 8-minute shower with the kind of low-flow showerhead we’ve been discussing uses only 20 gallons of water. So suds up while standing up, and use the bath only as an indulgent treat.