Showering: Bad for the Environment?

A few nights ago I hopped in the shower to wash away the stress of the day. It had been a particularly long day and it felt good to be in the shower, so I stayed in for about 25 minutes. As I was soaping and sudsing and enjoying the scalding hot shower I was taking, I wondered how much water and energy is used for me to take this shower. I was curious to see if the time I spent in the shower was really bad for the environment. 

Well, I found out that it is. Taking a 25 minute shower at 90 degrees F uses 63 gallons of water per day. If I took showers like this for a year, I would use  22,813 gallons of water per year. Water will cost $45.65 per year and energy will cost $294.31. This is a total of $339.39. Not only is taking long showers bad for the environment, it is also pricey. If people would take on average, an 8 minute shower at a temperature of 80 degrees, only 20 gallons of water per day would be used by one person. This is a dramatic decrease. The gallons per year would drop dramatically from 22,813 to 7,300. Not to mention that the price of gallons and energy used per year would drop from $339.39 to $81.87.

So these past few days I have been taking quick showers and you should too. It's good for the environment, cost effective, and you have time to do other things.


If you have time- visit this website. It's where I got all of my info from
http://www.paystolivegreen.com/2009/01/shower-water-and-energy-use-calculator/


-The Green Team