Ro's Recz

While I normally write about things I recommend, I want to have more variation. I will continue to do recommendations of things I come across, but I also want to post my findings of questions that I have (on any topic). These are not questions unique to myself; however, I have taken the time to research the topics and find out the answers. When I find an article that has been written about the subject, I will simply summarize the findings and direct you to the article (for further investigation).

I was curious in learning about how much water taking a shower uses, as it is one of the main expenditures of water in our daily lives.

In this article from Home Water Works, it says that the average American shower uses 15.8 gallons of water and lasts for 7.8 minutes. This means that every minute you spend in the shower uses 2 gallons of water or so.

However, in another article by the Portland Water Bureau, they reported that the average shower uses about 17 gallons of water, and lasts for 8 minutes on average. While these numbers are similar to the other number, it would mean that a shower uses a slightly higher number of 2.125 gallons/minute.

Next time you look for a shower-head, you should look for one with a WaterSense label. This is a label certifying that the shower-head uses less than 2 gallons/minute. This will help to lessen the average water usage for each shower you take. Obviously, there are other steps that you can take to also reduce your water consumption from showering, such as just taking shorter showers (or turning off the water while you are soaping).

16-17 gallons/shower is a pretty high number considering that most people shower every day, if not multiple times per day. Each little improvement that you could make to your showering habits could greatly impact the environment and water usage!