Shower Water Saving Tips

Showering to Savings

In an average home, showers are typically the third largest water use after toilets and clothes washers. The average American shower uses 17.2 gallons (65.1 liters) and lasts for 8.2 minutes at average flow rate of 2.1 gallons per minute (gpm) (7.9 lpm).

Shower Water Saving Tips

1. Pay attention to the length of time spent in the shower. Try taking a shorter shower of around 5 minutes.

2. If you shower is equipped with an on-off switch use it while you are soaping and shampooing.

3. If you have to wait a period of time for the hot water to reach the shower, try collecting the normally discarded cold water in a bucket for watering plants.

An additional method to reduce water use in showers is to turn off the water while lathering and shampooing, often called a "navy shower". The method requires three steps: 1) turn on water to rinse body and hair; 2) turn off water while shampooing hair and washing body with soap and washcloth; 3) resume water flow and rinse off all shampoo and soap. Using this technique, the total duration of water flow can easily be reduced to 5 minutes or less.