Lowering the Temperature

Showers are one of the things that most people do regularly. This one activity is also something that can greatly affect a person’s energy consumption. Within one shower, there are many components that have the potential to hurt the environment. Water consumption and energy consumption are the two main wasteful parts of showers. If someone showers a lot, they will be using a lot of water. If someone takes very hot showers, they will be using a lot of energy. I fall into the category of taking very hot showers. 440 Btu is required to heat just one gallon of water. Since showers use about 5 gallons of water for every minute in the shower, 2200 Btu is being used every single minute that someone is in the shower just to heat the water that they are using.

I have decided to not only attempt to cut down on my time in the shower, but also to lower the temperature of my showers. Because I know there is no limit on how long my shower can be hot for while I’m at college, I have not been paying attention to how hot my showers are. To measure the temperature of my showers, I will use a waterproof thermometer. I will take one shower at my normal temperature, then I will lower my shower temperature by at least 5°F for the rest of the semester.  This will help to reduce my daily energy consumption. Obviously I will not be taking freezing cold showers, but by lowering the temperature even just 5°F will help reduce my individual energy consumption and help me to live a more sustainable life.