Week 1 of Showering for 10 minutes
Reflection on the 1st week
Honestly, my first week of showering for 10 minutes went better than expected.
Why?
I was sick for the whole entire week. In my family, if you're sick, you're not allowed to shower. I don't know if this applies to every Asian family, but in my family, we believe that showering when you're sick will make you even sicker.
So...
I saved a total of 84 gallons this week.
So where did I get this number from?
If you read my first blog post...., then you will know that the average flow rate of a shower is about 2.1 gallons per minutes (Homewaterworks). And In this project, I shower for 10 minutes a day, 4 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday) so
10 minutes * 4 days a week = 40 minutes a week.
40 minutes * 2.1 gallons = 84 gallons a week.
But because I haven't shower this week, I have saved an extra total of 84 gallons. This extra 84 is the number of gallons I saved by not doing this project.
But if I was doing the project (the 10 minutes shower) and take into account of the number of gallons of water I used when I shower every day for 20 minutes, then I would save a total of 210 gallons.
20 minutes * 7 days a week = 140 minutes a week.
140 minutes * 2.1 gallons = 294 gallons a week.
294 gallons - 84 gallons = 210 gallons (the number of gallons I saved)
2) Calculate the impact of your behavior change. How many resources (water, trees, carbon, greenhouse gases, food, plastic, etc.) do you save by doing this behavior daily? Weekly? How many resources will you save after 30 days? Yearly?
*If you want to know how much you save, you need to find out how much you used before you started this behavior/habit.
But If I saved a total of 210 gallons of water a week, how many gallons of water would I save in a year?
210 gallons a week saved * 52 weeks in a year = 10920 gallons saved in a year.
An average American "shower uses 17.2 gallons (65.1 liters) and lasts for 8.2 minutes" and I shower for 10 minutes for this challenge. For me, this project would save water because I cut down showering time by half but for the average American, their shower time would increase by 2 minutes. And this is not good.
Was I surprised on how much water I saved?
No, not really. Why? It's because it's common sense that if I could down my showering time, a lot of water would be saved. But I did get surprised knowing little freshwater is available in the world, "While nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent." (nationalgeographic)
Knowing this changes my perspective on my water usage.
How do I know that these data and number are reliable and not just some freak wanting me to save my water bills?
I know that they are reliable for three reasons:
1.) One of my data is from national geographic, a site that is known to be pro-science and very trustworthy. How do I know this? "National Geographic is the official magazine of the National Geographic Society. It has been published continuously since its first issue in 1888. It primarily contains articles about geography, history, and world culture." (mediabiasfactcheck.com)
2.) My other data is from homewaterworks, a site with the main purpose of educating its readers about the importance of water.
3.) Last and final reason is, nobody got time to spread false information about the lack of fresh water. If anything, they will promote the use of water to get us to pay the water bills.
Cited sources:
1.) Homewaterworks
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"Knowing this changes my perspective on my water usage." --> So what do you think should be done around the world to preserve water? Is this the best way?
ReplyDeleteMy way of doing it (10 minutes shower) is not the best way. But if everybody can just cut their shower time by half or to 5 minutes. And cut down game that involves water, like water balloon fight or gun fight then we would be able to preserve a lot more water.
DeleteI agree that taking shorter showers is a great way to save on the earth's valuable resources. Why did you choose to take shorter showers rather than doing something else. Are there other ideas that you may be able to do that could reduce your usage even more then what you are doing? Thanks, just a thought, just asking a question.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about taking colder showers as well as shortening their length? That way you could save energy, money, and water.
ReplyDeleteTo shorten your shower time, will you eventually be moving on to take navy showers like HB, Gian and others? If you do that, you can easily save about 2.5 gallons of water because you do not wait for it to warm up. (https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/water-heating/reduce-hot-water-use-energy-savings)
ReplyDelete