Install Low-Flow Showerheads & Faucet Aerators

According to the Department of Energy, heating water is the second-largest residential energy use. And your shower is the biggest user of hot water in the entire household, on average consuming 37% of your home’s hot water. There’s a simple, effective and inexpensive way to cut shower water use: just replace your conventional showerhead with an energy-efficient low-flow showerhead. Because it adds air to the water, you’ll have the same amount of water pressure as you did before, and you won’t notice that less actual water is pouring down on you.

If you don’t already have them, simply installing a faucet aerator on your kitchen and bathroom sinks can save $50 a year for a typical family of three and a significant amount of water. If you can reduce the amount of water you use while washing dishes, brushing your teeth and shaving, these savings can grow even more. A faucet aerator adds air to the water, providing the same amount of water pressure as you had before, and you won’t notice that less actual water is running.

Low-Flow Showerheads: What You Should Know

• A standard showerhead uses 4-6 gallons of water per minute (gpm)—even a 5-minute shower can use 30 gallons! Energy-efficient showerheads reduce water use by 50% or more. They typically cut the flow rate to 2.5 gpm or less.
• According to the Department of Energy, with an energy-efficient showerhead, not only can you cut water use in half, you can also cut the energy costs for heating hot water for showers by as much as 50%.
• With an energy-efficient showerhead, a family of four that normally takes five-minute showers saves at least 14,000 gallons of water a year.

Low-Flow Showerheads: What You Can Do

Make sure you are using energy-efficient showerheads. Many utilities offer these showerheads for free or for a rebate. You can also pick one up at your hardware store for $10 to $20 and easily install it yourself.

• Don’t use the low-flow showerhead as an excuse to take longer showers. You won’t save any energy or money that way!
• Don’t confuse “low-flows” with “water restrictors” (devices you insert into showerheads to cut flow). Water restrictors simply restrict the amount of water that gets through the shower head, increasing the pressure of the flow. They do not aerate the water. The shower experience from a low flow aerator is significantly better than with a water restrictor.

Use showerheads with a shutoff valve, which allows you to turn off the water while you shampoo. When you turn it back on the water will be exactly the same temperature.

Use a bucket to capture the water that comes out of the showerhead while it is warming up. This clean, soap-free water can be used to water house plants! It is estimated that you can save 1000 gallons of water a year by simply catching the first few clean gallons that come out while waiting for the hot water to arrive in your shower.

Faucet Aerators: What You Should Know

• A typical sink faucet uses 3 to 4 gallons of water per minute, although federal guidelines require any faucets made after 1994 to have a maximum flow rate of 2.2 gallons per minute. A faucet aerator can reduce this to 0.5 gallons per minute!
• A laminar faucet, which sprays the water through many parallel streams instead of the whole faucet opening, greatly reduces water usage at your sink while rinsing just as forcefully.
• Letting hot water run without using it is a big waste of energy, but you shouldn’t let cold water go to waste either. Turn off the water while brushing teeth or washing dishes. If shaving, plug the sink and fill it instead of running the water.

Faucet Aerators: What You Can Do

Install faucet aerators on all sinks. Not sure if you have them? Simply look at your faucet: an aerator screws into the faucet and should state its flow rate (0.5 to 2.0 gpm) on the outer rim (look closely, it’s often etched in fine lettering). Aerators cost $2–$5, and you can find them at your local hardware store. They’re easy to install, just screw them on.

• For the bathroom sink, get an aerator that flows at 0.5 to 1.0 gallons per minute.
• For the kitchen sink, you’ll need a bit more pressure so get one that flows at 2 gallons per minute.
• If you wash dishes by hand, be sure to purchase an aerator with a shutoff valve.

Fix leaky faucets. A leak of just one drip every three seconds wastes 30 gallons of water a month!

Get a free water conservation kit that may include rebates or even free aerators. For Santa Clara County, go to the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s web site for more info.

Sources: You Can Prevent Global Warming: 51 Easy Ways, by Jeffrey Langholz and Kelly Turner; 30 Simple Energy Things You Can Do To Save The Earth, by the Earth Works Group and PG&E.