What does it cost to take a ten-minute shower in the morning!
You will be surprised the amount of money you can save each year, changing out your standard showerheads for a more energy efficient low-flow showerhead. You must remember the amount of wet you get doesn't change, just the amount of water waste.To calculate the cost we need to know some things:
The National average cost of water in the United States
The National average cost of electricity per kilowatt hour (kWh)
The average cost to heat 1 liter of water
The average flow rate of a showerhead
The flow rate of a low-flow showerhead.
The National average cost of water is $.0030274 per liter. Info Here
The most recent figure for average cost of electricity (April 2008) in the United States is 9.44 cents per kilowatt-hour. Info Here.
Cost to heat one liter of water to average showering temperature" $0.1313685. Info Here
Most regular showerhead fixtures installed before 1992 have flow rates of up to 5.5 gallons of water per minute. We will use is 3.5 for this exercise. Info Here.
Using the information from the websites (linked above), we can do the math:
Cost of electricity:
$0.0944 per kWhMultiplied by the cost to heat one liter
$0.1313685This gives us a heating cost per liter
$0.0130054 (or a little more than one cent).Add the cost of water
$0.0030274Total cost of one liter of shower water
$0.0160328
How many liters of water are used in the average ten-minute shower?
The average flow rate showerhead uses 3.5 gallons per minute. Since there are 3.785 liters in each gallon, this would be 13.125 liters per minute, or 131.125 liters in ten minutes.131.125 liters, multiplied by the cost per liter of $0.0160328,gives a final answer (rounded to the nearest cent) of $2.10 for the average ten-minute shower.
So how much can you save?
Just by changing out your old shower head and replacing it with a new low-flow showerhead that reduces the flow rate to 1.5 gallons per minute, you can lower your cost per shower to $0.91, or save you approximately $1.19 per shower. If you shower 20 times a month on average that is a monthly savings of $23.80 per family member.