Are you a shower at night or in the morning type of person? We’re big on a fresh colder shower in the morning or a warmer one at night to lull us into a comfy sleep state. While it’s only 5 minutes of our day it can have a profound impact on our water usage and our energy bills. In fact, we’d be bold enough to claim that your shower is the key to water efficiency.
Showers and their water usage
A running tap can be your worst enemy when it comes to reducing your water usage. Depending on how open the valve is, you could be pouring out 6 litres every minute! So, it makes sense that your shower is a similar challenge. Unlike a tap, a shower has a lot more energy forced through the system which transforms those 6 litres into a whopping 15 litres. It means your shower is the most water-intensive item in your household. But don’t let this worry you, see it as your golden ticket to water reduction!
Shortening your shower time
We always advocate for a 5 minute shower – although water companies may push this to four minutes, we think five minutes is a good target to aim for initially. This length of shower is your everyday target. Get in, wash your body, get out.
We know that those with longer hair will need a couple of extra minutes a couple of times a week to wash their hair, so consider this as well.
Both situations result in wildlife eating microplastics. In some cases, it can kill them – there is some horrific evidence of fish ingesting large amounts of plastic and dying. It gets worse!
But if you’re currently spending longer than 5 minutes in the shower, for each minute you can save up to 15 litres of water. As a nation, we’re being challenged to achieve a target of using 100 litres of water per person, per day, which means those 15 litres are a lot! The difference between a 5 minute and a 10 minute shower can save you 75 litres of water.
While showers are a nice time for some quiet reflection, wasting water for some meditation isn’t a good idea. If that’s what you’re after, we suggest running a bath (a modest one) to enjoy some tranquillity. Otherwise, treat your shower as a task that you’re trying to get done as quickly as possible.
How to shorten your shower time
We’ve gone through all the ideas out there, implemented all the tools and we must admit, there is only one method that works for us every single time. Of course, a while ago we installed water-saving shower heads, but that only gets us so far. Our secret weapon? A 4 minute song playlist. And yes, we said four minutes, not five. Why? Because that extra minute is reserved for what we’re calling – ‘summoning the mental willpower to get out of the shower’.
A 4 minute playlist is better than any other technique we’ve come across. Carefully select one song from the playlist (because they’ll all be at the 4 minute mark) to suit your mood and enjoy it as your shower song for the day. We love the challenge of finding the right song to fit the mood but also thoroughly enjoy making it special enough for our one shower song of the day.
As soon as the song is over. You know that that is your cue to get out and dry off. Some days it may be harder than others, but that’s why you’ve got a 4 minute long shower – to compensate for these days where you need the extra minute to get out.
Want to find a 4 minute song playlist? Search Spotify for a suitable playlist or even YouTube. There are plenty of playlists already out there. You don’t need to make or buy your own.
