50 Acts of Green: Day Ten - Timed Showers
Don't you just love a nice long hot water shower, especially when you've been not feeling so well. It perks you up immediately, makes you feel more relaxed and able to handle your life. Hot showers really are an amazing convenience of first world technology. I love a nice hot shower in the morning, its part of my regular routine designed to set me up for a good day. However, the top three residential water consumers are toilets, clothes washers, and showers. The average American showers for 8.2 minutes and uses 17.2 gallons of water. Not only do showers consume a huge amount of water, showers use a large amount of energy in heating up the water for showers. Average hot water usage in American households is 45 gallons, which means showering takes up most of the daily total of hot water usage. Even though water is a renewable resource, as it can be cleaned and reused, most water treatment facilities also consume a good deal of energy (between 20-45 kWh). So the best way to cu...