Save energy by showering better

04/12/2014

Every shower, you’ll save enough electricity to power a 60-watt light bulb for eight hours, or a 20-watt LED for 24 hours. Every year, you’ll save the amount of water it takes to wash more than 70 loads of laundry.

October is “Shower Better Month.” By showering ‘better’ you can save both energy and water! Our electronics and appliances aren’t the only things that need energy to keep going, you may not be aware of just how much energy goes into heating the hot water for your shower. And even before you heat the water, it takes energy to treat that water and deliver it to your home.

A lot of energy-intensive and chemical treatment makes our water safe to drink. And the work doesn’t stop there. If you want that water to be hot, it takes energy to warm it up before it hits the tap. This means that if you use less water for cleaning and playing, you’ll save energy and protect the environment. Water and energy work together.

Here’s some food for thought— according to www.epa.gov/watersense, the energy it takes to treat and deliver the water that just 10 houses use in a year could power your home’s refrigerator for more than two years!

Water does even more energy work for us, cooling the power plants that generate the electricity we use every day. So every time your television, computer, or lights use energy, water is being used up too. It can take 3,000 to 6,000 gallons of water to power one light bulb left on 12 hours a day for a year. Turn off the lights and save both water and energy!

We clean up, cool off, wake up, or relax in the shower after a long day. But the facts from WaterSense tell us that we can also be wasting a lot of water and energy because:

-The average shower lasts eight minutes. Since a standard showerhead has a water flow of 2.2 gallons per minute, each shower uses 18 gallons of water!

-Across the United States, we use more than one trillion gallons of water each year just for showering.

There’s an easy way to waste less – a new WaterSense labeled showerhead – that uses less water but still provides a great spray of water when you shower. You and your family can save water and energy if you use a WaterSense labeled showerhead:

• Every shower, you’ll save enough electricity to power a 60-watt light bulb for eight hours, or a 20-watt LED for 24 hours.

• Every year, you’ll save the amount of water it takes to wash more than 70 loads of laundry.

Protecting and preserving our water supplies is critical to our economy, the environment, and our health. Water is not an infinite resource, and residential water users are the largest water users in the state. To ensure enough clean water for you, your family, and future generations join the ‘We’re for Water’ campaign by choosing WaterSense (www.epa.gov/watersense) labeled products.

WaterSense labeled products, similar to EnergySTAR for labeling products, are certified to meet strict water efficiency and performance goals. You’re guaranteed to save, without sacrificing performance.

Finding WaterSense labels is easy, as the blue and green water drop label is visible on product packaging at local home and hardware stores. And, many well-known manufacturers offer customer catalogues and website pages specific to their WaterSense labeled products, so they’re easy to find.

To qualify to wear the WaterSense label, products are tested to prove they perform as well or better than their less efficient counterparts; they are 20 percent more water efficient than average products in that category; they realize water savings on a national level; they provide measurable water savings results; they achieve water efficiency through several technology options; they are effectively differentiated by the WaterSense label; and they obtain independent, third-party certification.

You can save more by going beyond changing your shower head because all sorts of water products have qualified for the WaterSense label. Look for bathroom sink faucets and accessories, showerheads, toilets, urinals, weather-based Irrigation Controllers, and WaterSense labeled new homes. (Yes, if you’re in the market for a new home, you can even look for a home that has qualified as water efficient).

You can Shower Better this month and all year long by purchasing and installing WaterSense fixtures.

Epa.gov

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