Long Showers = Money Down the Drain
Did you know that showering for 12 minutes can cost $3 or more, depending on the flow rate, heating source and ambient temperature?
For a family of 5, with each family member taking a 12 minute shower each day, the cost is upwards of $5,000 per year! Shortening those showers to 6 minutes would save you $2,500 annually, but who has time to play shower police?
Low-flow shower heads have been on the market for a number of years, but many people find the reduction in water pressure to be problematic.
A Shower Timer Could be the Answer
Shower timers can help you reduce energy costs, and conserve our precious natural resources.
Simply Google “shower timer” and you’ll find that shower timers come in a variety of styles and in a wide range of prices and features.
For the Budget Conscious
You’ll find simple, manually operated shower timers based on egg timer and hourglass designs, and typically sell
for under $5. Although the cost is appealing, it would seem that manual timers like these could easily ignored which defeats their purpose.
For the More Technologically Inclined
Electronic shower timers come in a wide variety of styles, and range from very affordable to fairly pricey. Some are basically waterproof stopwatches, and some look like wall-mounted hi-tech home entertainment equipment.
The The Australian-made efergy shower timer, for example, features a digital display that shows your water usage, and alerts you when you’ve reached your target usage.
Another Australian company, Shower Timer takes technology a bit further. The ShowerTimer is promoted as “not just another shower timer . . . it’s an effective shower controller.”
The device features “patented microcontroller technology” to control the shower time, and the company’s Web site asserts, “Even teenagers can be trained to shower in a few minutes!” If you have teenagers, you know this is no small claim! The site even provides a handy “Personal Shower Cos Calculator” so you can see how much the device could save you.
In our online search, we also came across the Shower Manager, which operates on a 9-volt battery, and allows you to set the shower time to 5, 8 or 11 minutes. At the end of the programmed time, the device switches to low-flow mode to allow you time to rinse off. An audible tone sounds 60 seconds prior to the switch.
And Finally, For the Really Budget Conscious
And then there’s this ingenious approach which we stumbled across on YouTube. Of course, you might have to invest in a cricket bat if you don’t have one laying around the house.
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