The Power of a Shower

Because I am attempting to lower the time and temperature of my daily showers, this past week I tried to be more conscious of how much time I spend in the shower and about how hot the water is while I’m in there.

I discovered that my showers usually take about 15-20 minutes, which is pretty long. You use about 5 gallons of water every minute that you’re in the shower, meaning that I use between 75 and 100 gallons of water every day just from showering. Now, I don’t think I could cut down on how frequently I shower because I am not showering more than once a day, and I don’t want to be not showering every day. Therefore, I am going to try to lower my shower time to about 10 minutes. This means that instead of using 100 gallons of water in one shower, I will be using about 50 gallons. Although this is still a lot of water being wasted, I am still cutting down on half of my water usage from showering.

Not only did I realize that I take very long showers, but my showers are definitely much hotter than they need to be. I usually have the water as hot as it can go, and my body is usually red by the end of the shower. This is pretty unnecessary. I can definitely lower the water temperature by a lot and still not have to take a cold shower.

The scholarly article that I found was about lowering CO2 emissions through lower water usage. The article focused on creating and using water fixtures such as toilets, showerheads, and sinks that would help lower water usage. “The sum total of the predicted reduction in emissions reached a quantity equivalent to 2% of the total amount of the global CO2 emission, and many projects are underway in developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil” (Shimizu, Toyosada, Yoshitaka, and Sakaue 2012). Both the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are working to lower water usage to lower CO2 emissions throughout the world. The article also says that in Japanese houses, hot water usage is about 13.4% of the CO2 emission associated with daily life. Although this study was conducted in Japan, it is most likely not much different in America.

American’s consumption of natural resources is abhorrent, and I am part of that wasteful group by taking long showers that are as hot as mine are. Starting this week, I will be cutting down my shower time to 10 minutes and lowering my water temperature by 5°F.

Shimizu, Y., Toyosada, K., Yoshitaka, M., & Sakaue, K. (2012). Creation of Carbon Credits by Water Saving. Water (20734441), 4(3), 533-544. doi:10.3390/w4030533