Make Everyday Showering Less Wasteful With A Low Flow Showerhead
When trying to stay green and conserve energy and water, there are some simple steps that we can take at home. Low flowing showerheads conserve water and benefit our environment, and water resources. There have been water shortages in over half of the states in the last year. The average family uses 40 gallons of water every day for the shower alone.
By using a low flow showerhead, families can save over 2,000 gallons of water every year. Hundreds of billions of gallons of water from our water sources could potentially be saved every year with low flow showerheads. There are federal regulations that have been set that say that showerhead flow rates must not exceed over 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) of water. This is at a water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch. Low flow showerhead fixtures can be purchased rather inexpensively, and can easily be installed in order to get a considerable water savings. To determine your flow rate:
- Use a bucket that is marked in gallon increments
- Place the bucket under the shower head.
- Turn the shower on at your normal every day water pressure.
- Time how many seconds it takes to fill the bucket to the 1 gallon mark.
If your shower takes less than 20 seconds to reach the 1 gallon mark, you might consider installing a low flow showerhead. Shower heads manufactured before 1992 might have a flow rate of 5.5 gallons per minute. If your shower was installed before that year, you may want to look into testing and possibly installing a low flow showerhead.
Any showerhead with a flow rate that is 2.5 gpm or less will give you maximum water efficiency. The two types of showerheads are aerating, which mixes air with the water to form a mist-like spray, or laminar flow, which is an individual stream.
For more information about low flow showerheads, contact Sobieski Services. Our goal is to help educate our customers in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC & plumbing systems).
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