Shower Plumbing:Low Flow Showerhead
We have all been in the shower on a cold night basking in the warmth of the hot water...as it runs down the drain of your shower plumbing. It might feel good, but it sure wastes a lot of water. Shower heads can't exceed a per minute gallon volume of 2.5 gallons. Well many manufacturers have gone well below that, although they sure don't feel as good as 2.5 gallons per minute.
I recently bought a 1.6 gallon per minute shower head and it sure is stingy with the water. You know how most shower heads have a ring of holes around the perimeter? Well this on has one large hole in the middle of it. As it runs you can hear a loud "whirring" of what I imagine is a propeller of some sort. This shower head doesn't really spray water on you, rather it spits it on you. That sure doesn't feel as good as a spray.
I do like it for one reason though. If my teenager takes her usual 30 minute shower, I save approximately 27 gallons of water... each night. Assuming she showers nightly, 27 gallons x 365 days =9,855 gallon of water saved each year. I pulled a recent water bill, and with the water company's tiered pricing based on consumption, the water company charged me an average of $1.94 per 1,000 gallons of water. So, if I multiply my 9,855 gallons I saved by the cost of the water, I saved $19.11. Since I only paid $15.00 for the shower head, my break-even was about 10 months.
Of course, in my shower I still have the 2.5 gallon shower head...I like the feeling of the spray.