Barriers/Benefits of Taking Shorter Showers

Anna,

Recently moved to Halifax and think your thoughts align well with HRM's solar cities initiative, might be worth connecting with Solar Cities team if you haven't already. I am on sabbatical from a local government role in Australia - happy to share some of our behaviour shortlisting's for outdoor water use and home energy (synergy with shorter shower). Also some cool stuff around real time monitoring of water use utilizing hourly meter reads and an analytics platform provided by IBM. Happy to pass on some and connect if interested. [email protected]
Cheers
Jason

Jason Lange
Water Cycle Team Leader - currently on sabbatical
Townsville City Council
Canada

There has been research in the UK around shower habits, for example a study by Unilever about shower duration (see summaries at www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15836433 and www.unilever.co.uk/media-centre/pressreleases/2011/sustainableshowerstudy.aspx

There is also a report form Waterwise which assesses some of the technological and cultural changes which have led to higher water use. www.waterwise.org.uk/data/2009_Waterwise_water_and_energy_from_personal_washing.pdf

In workshops that I run, people are often very surprised about the high energy and water use of showers, as the message 'take a shower rather than a bath' has circulated widely, without asking people to think about how long they spend in a shower. Visual representations of the different amounts of water used between a bath and a long shower can be helpful in making people think differently about their habits.

Acknowledging that a lot of the barriers to shorter showers are around people's perception of the value of a shower as 'me time', some of the campaigns around shorter showers have focused on what else you can do with the time you have saved.

Other barriers are around cleanliness, so alternatives will need to show that it is possible to be clean with reduced shower time.

Finally a significant benefit of less showering could be skin health, particularly through demonstrating that increased showering can have detrimental effects on skin ... see http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/daily/tips/daily-shower-skin.htm for an example of the argument, but there is probably a more authoritative source.

Hope that helps.

Tom

Tom Veitch
Community Programme Manager
Global Action Plan
United Kingdom

It's not a case of shorter showers,it's the volume of water used that matters.
"TRICKLE SHOWERS",the idea terrorises people I suggest it to,but after the first splash if the flow is reduced to a trickle it's possible to wet & wash all over,slow,meticulous,thorough. However the vital factor is to have the showerhead overhead in the middle of the cubicle,which usually means extending the stalk & not to have it squirting at an angle away from the side-wall,which requires a considerable flow to be effective.The stalk can be cut & extended with garden hose & 2 X hose-clamps,hang the showerhead on wire [coathanger] or string,off a cup-hook in the ceiling.A 'splash at the finish rinse;for the 5 LITRE SHOWER, it's not the time its the volume [except in busy homes].

Tony Nelson
Water Trickster
onetonpump
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onetonpump.com