I understand that nobody really wants to give up luxury when it comes to bathing; using a 1.0 GPM (gallon per minute) shower head isn’t a great experience, but 12 GPM?  Really?  When I lived in Australia I had friends that only bathed every other day, or had to share bath water among family members, because their water was so limited.

They also talk about the cost of some of these water hog shower heads being in the thousands of dollars!  Why would you spend that much for a piece of brass with holes in it?  You can get an Oxygenics® Evolution, multi-function, hand held shower head with patented pressure increasing technology for less than $60.

Cash you don't need to spend for a great shower

I have an Oxygenics® Storm rain style shower head in my home; it puts out roughly 1.8 GPM at my 57 PSI (pounds per square inch) water pressure.  With that 1.8 GPM I get plenty clean, plenty fast, and it’s an enjoyable shower.

Oxygenics® Storm

Not only is the 12 GPM head using 6 times as much water, it’s 6 times as much hot water, meaning there was 6 times more electricity or gas used in the heating process, and that’s 6 times more water going to the local water treatment plant, which uses electricity to run all of it’s processes, and the list of addition resources and expenses just keeps building.  There’s a knock on effect that people just don’t think about.  You know a butterfly in Africa causes a typhoon in Japan kind of thing; only this scenario is real, and can be tracked and measured.

Now I’m not a big tree hugger, save the whales, global warming fanatic, but shouldn’t we all make an effort not to waste our natural resources?  Especially when you can get a luxurious, enjoyable, spa like experience at less than 2 GPM, and for less than $60, with an Oxygenics® head?  Makes sense to me.

“Savings obtained by leisure group

The Legacy Hotel & Resorts International Group …. has opted for the Oxygenics range …. “Following successful performance testing of the Oxygenics SkinCare showerhead we installed these units in a number of our hotels and lodges as a pilot project” informs (Mike) Devereux (group development manager) …. The results showed large savings of both water and electricity …. Legacy has decided to specify the range across the group because of the savings obtained. ”

You can read the full article here.

Click on the Legacy logo above to see their home page for South Africa.

It is estimated that there will be more than 300,000 visitors to South Africa for World Cup this year.  That’s an additional 300,000 people drinking, washing, rinsing, showering, and many other uses of South Africa’s fresh water resources.

World Cup lasts for 30 days, but let’s say the average visitor for the event stays for a total of 6 days and only showers once per day.  With 300,000 visitors, that’s an additional 1.8 Million showers taken during the games.

With the average shower in South Africa using 15-25 Liters of water per minute, with a low estimate of 15 L/min that comes out to an additional 27 Million Liters of water used, just for showering, within a one month time span.

If Oxygenics self pressurizing water conserving shower heads were used, with flow rates of 6-9 L/min that additional usage could be cut in half.  Imaging saving 13.5 Million Liters of water across South Africa in 1 month.  That’s 20,282,450 bottles of drinking water!

Now imaging the knock on effect of using that much less water in the shower.  13.5 Million less Liters of waste water being sent through local treatment plants and 9.5 Million Liters less being heated, reducing energy usage by 326,000 kiloWatt hours, which is enough to power 75 average South African homes for a year.

To see more information about saving water in South Africa take a look at Eternally Solar’s website.

Their goal?  To replace half a million water and energy wasting shower heads with efficient, conservation heads.  This would result in over 1 Million tonnes of carbon not being released into the atmosphere each year!  That’s the same as over 300,000 cars permanently removed from the roads!!

This is one company.  What are you doing to make a difference?

Water utilization has been a growing thorn on the side of water conservation and much of this occurs  at home. We all live in various regions of the world and in some places the need to conserve water is vital; while other nations boast of their adequate water supply. Water depletion is a growing concern that more often than not goes unnoticed. Particularly in taking showers, the amount of water we use, often between 2-4 gallons a minute, will go to waste if we do not have the proper means of controlling the flow of water from our pipes to cleanse or bathe ourselves.

Here are some low-cost ways to conserve water at home:

• Dishwashers and clothes washers should be operated when full for optimum water conservation. If you must wash partial loads, adjust the water levels as appropriate.
• The dishwasher is your friend: Even old-school dishwashers don’t use as much water per dish as hand-washing. Newer, more efficient dishwashers use only 1/6 of the water used during hand-washing, and save 230 hours of your time each year.
• Scrape, don’t rinse: Pre-rinsing dishes before loading the dishwasher is unnecessary. Scrape off food and then trust that bad boy to do its job.
• Pass on permanent press: Avoid the permanent press cycle when washing clothes, which uses an additional 5 gallons for the extra rinse.

• Upgrade your equipment: Get a high quality shower head like the Oxygenics® Evolution - Self-pressurizing, water & energy conserving, and lifetime guaranteed! Not only will you notice a huge savings on your water & energy bill but you will love the increased water pressure and invigorating spray that Oxygenics® products have to offer. Or you could always take a Navy shower!

• Install a low-flow 1.6 gallon toilet: Ultra-low flow toilets use only 1.6 gallons of water per flush. Using these could cut indoor water use by as much as 20%. Older toilets use 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush.
• Don’t use the toilet as a garbage: Using a wastebasket instead of the toilet for tissues and other bits of trash will save gallons of water that are otherwise wasted.
• Check for and repair leaks: Check all water lines and faucets (including outdoor) for leaks. One way is to turn off all water in your house and read your meter. Come back in 15 minutes. If the dial has moved, you have a leak.
• Install high-efficiency low-flow faucet aerators: Older faucets use between 3 and 7 gallons per minute. Low-flow faucet aerators use no more than 1.5 gallons of water per minute. The aerators can be attached to most existing faucets.

The next time you’re walking through your home, check out the shower head, the appliances, the toilets, and the faucets and see how many gallons of water you are literally letting go down the drain. In just the last 50 years of man’s existence water levels have already dropped up to 900 ft in some areas. Declining ground-water levels have three main effects on water wells. First, as the depth to water increases, the water must be lifted higher to reach the  surface. As the lift distance increases, so does the energy required to drive the pump. Thus, power costs increase as ground-water levels decline. Depending on the use of the water and the energy costs, it may no longer be economically feasible to use water for a given purpose. Second, ground-water levels may decline below the bottom of existing pumps, necessitating the expense of lowering the pump, deepening the well, or drilling a deeper replacement well. Third, the yield of the well may decline below usable rates. Many may overlook it, but the amount of water we consume may someday severely affect our lively hood and that of  future generations.   Don’t let your future dry up!

Try hauling a boat with a Toyota Prius, or keeping bags of recyclables in your apartment for weeks.  You can reduce your energy consumption by not heating or cooling your house all year, but tell that to someone who lives in Alaska, or Arizona.  Not convenient or comfortable.

However there is one area where we can all help out while actually increasing our comfort; in the shower.  The average person in the US showers once per day and takes 10 minutes to do so.  In a household of 4 people that’s 40 minutes of running the shower every day.  We could reduce our water usage by taking shorter showers, or showering less, but that’s not always convenient, and most would agree it’s not comfortable either.

Instead, we can reduce the amount of water we use by installing a water conserving shower head.  It’s simple, it’s inexpensive, it’s fast, but have you used a common water conserving shower head before?  Most are what we call “low flow” which reduces the water by simply restricting the amount of water coming through the head.  This results in a dribble which reduces your comfort level, and most times increases the time spend in the shower trying to rinse the soap off your body.  Most people are put off by these “low flow” heads and simply go back to their water guzzlers.

Now there is a way to save in the shower and actually increase your comfort level.  By installing a self pressurizing, water conserving shower head, you can reduce the amount of water you use while avoiding the weak dribble.  Oxygenics shower heads use a patented technology that actually increases the pressure of your shower while cutting your water usage by an average of 0.75 gallons per minute.  If we go back to the average family of 4, that’s 30 gallons a day, 10,950 gallons a year.  Plus as an added bonus, an average of 70% of the water used in the shower is heated, so that family of 4 will be heating 7,665 gallons less per year.

That’s 10,950 gallons not being pumped to that house, 10,950 gallons not being processed at the water treatment plant, 10,950 gallons not being pulled from our lakes, rivers, and wells.  That’s for one family of 4.  Imagine the impact we could have if everyone used a water conserving shower head.  A great place to start is here.