Survivor's Jounal: Entry 2
I discovered there was a button on my showerhead that restricts water flow! This is some new age technology in my old era home. Instead of having to turn off the water every time I want to stop the water. I feel like I'm becoming too complacent when I shower. The other day, on Tuesday, I spent two minutes under the water instead of just 1 minute. I feel like my hair takes up a lot of the water (which is a waste). I might consider cutting my hair soon to spend less time getting it wet and rinsing it. Overall, I'm doing a good job by not leaving the shower on for more than one minute at a time. The ramp up time for the water heater is still a pain though.
By running the water for only 1 minute instead of 10 minutes, I use 2 gallons instead of 20 gallons with my low flow showerhead (USGS, 2016). If I shower every day, I'll save 18 gallons per day, 126 gallons per week, 540 gallons every 30 days, or 6570 gallons each year.
If everyone in Seattle did this behavior:
According to the US Census of 2017, there are 724,745 people living in Seattle. If everyone in Seattle took shower with the water only for 1 minute, then every day, people would save 13 million gallons of water every day assuming all Seattlelites started from letting the water run from 10 minutes to 1 minute.
Olympic sized swimming pools are 50 meters by 20 meters by 3 meters (FINA, 2015).
50 times 25 times 3 is equal to 3750 cubic meters. Each cubic meter is 1000 liters. A full Olympic sized swimming pool can hold up to 3.75 million liters of water. 3.75 million liters of water 990,645 gallons of water. Using some basic math, the City of Seattle can save almost 13 Olympic swimming pools worth of water every day!
According to data provided by the Cape Town Government, the Steenbras Upper Dam can hold 31 million cubic meters of water when full, or 8 billion gallons of water. If we save as much water as predicted above, the City of Seattle can save enough water in a little under two years to fill the Steenbras Upper Dam (8 billion gallons of water/13 million gallons per day/365 days in a year = 1.685 years to fill up the dam) which can provide water indefinitely for the residents of Cape Town.
For a more concrete number, the water Seattlelites are able to save can provide 3 gallons or 11 liters of water to each person of Cape Town (13 million from above divided by Cape Town population) per day! Currently, the people of Cape Town are on a 50 liter a day restriction, so 61 liters is an improvement for families.
Currently, I cannot find a number of liters/gallons Cape Town needs to avert its water crisis for good.
This data might be unreliable because I don't know where the government's numbers are coming from, for both the Census and the USGS source. Also, I am assuming everyone has a low flow shower head which is probably not the case, so even more water may be saved by switching from 10 minutes to 1-minute showers. I also assumed everyone in Seattle took 10 minute showers everyday so the number of gallons saved may fluctuate even more because not everyone takes 10 minute showers: some people may take shorter or longer showers. Some people also take showers less than once a day, which may decrease the 13 million number even further.
If everyone in Seattle did this behavior:
According to the US Census of 2017, there are 724,745 people living in Seattle. If everyone in Seattle took shower with the water only for 1 minute, then every day, people would save 13 million gallons of water every day assuming all Seattlelites started from letting the water run from 10 minutes to 1 minute.
Olympic sized swimming pools are 50 meters by 20 meters by 3 meters (FINA, 2015).
50 times 25 times 3 is equal to 3750 cubic meters. Each cubic meter is 1000 liters. A full Olympic sized swimming pool can hold up to 3.75 million liters of water. 3.75 million liters of water 990,645 gallons of water. Using some basic math, the City of Seattle can save almost 13 Olympic swimming pools worth of water every day!
According to data provided by the Cape Town Government, the Steenbras Upper Dam can hold 31 million cubic meters of water when full, or 8 billion gallons of water. If we save as much water as predicted above, the City of Seattle can save enough water in a little under two years to fill the Steenbras Upper Dam (8 billion gallons of water/13 million gallons per day/365 days in a year = 1.685 years to fill up the dam) which can provide water indefinitely for the residents of Cape Town.
For a more concrete number, the water Seattlelites are able to save can provide 3 gallons or 11 liters of water to each person of Cape Town (13 million from above divided by Cape Town population) per day! Currently, the people of Cape Town are on a 50 liter a day restriction, so 61 liters is an improvement for families.
Currently, I cannot find a number of liters/gallons Cape Town needs to avert its water crisis for good.
This data might be unreliable because I don't know where the government's numbers are coming from, for both the Census and the USGS source. Also, I am assuming everyone has a low flow shower head which is probably not the case, so even more water may be saved by switching from 10 minutes to 1-minute showers. I also assumed everyone in Seattle took 10 minute showers everyday so the number of gallons saved may fluctuate even more because not everyone takes 10 minute showers: some people may take shorter or longer showers. Some people also take showers less than once a day, which may decrease the 13 million number even further.
Interesting comparisons to olympic pools. What are your thoughts on these extrapolations? What would this do in preventing future water crises? Does this occur in places around the world? Does it work?
ReplyDeleteHow long do you think you could do this challenge? Should people with more hair get more time in the shower because it takes longer to get it wet and rinse with soap?
ReplyDeletereally great use of information/sources. if you need a resource calculator, I've found that https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator is very helpful.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this is a crazy Idea but if you would try to take a cold shower by not letting a single moment for the water to be waste. You can try this during the summer when is really hot, you can take a cold shower rather waiting for the water to get warm or another way is by letting the heat across your house (if you have one) on then taking a cold shower. (you will save a couple of seconds)
ReplyDeleteI like how you provided how much water you wasted before and after you started the habit of saving water while showering.
ReplyDelete