low flow shower heads presentation complete

Low-Flow Shower Heads

1.6 GPM or less

Cassandra Mill & Timothy Davidson

How many gallons of water do you use for showering in a year?

How many times a week do you shower?

How many minutes do you shower for?

What is the flow rate of your shower head?

Back of the Envelope Calculation

Assumptions: The average American showers for 8 minutes

a day, five days a week.

The average shower head has a flow rate of 5 gallons per minute (gpm).

There are 52 weeks in a year.

Calculating your personal shower water consumption

Calculating your personal shower water consumption

Low –Flow Shower Heads in 2010

Low Flow Shower Heads have improved incredibly in recent years

Driving forces behind L-F Shower Heads

Government Regulations and Programs

Environmental Impacts

Advancements in technology

Energy Policy Act

Passed by Congress in 1992

Established production standards for water efficiency

Legally set national standard for shower heads’ flow rate at 2.5 gpm (previous average 5-8 gpm)

Met with public disapproval

Many manufacturers circumvented new standards by putting directions on packaging for removing washer that restricted flow rate

EPA’s WaterSense Program

Launched in 2006 to encourage consumer awareness about water

efficient products

EPA’s WaterSense Program

The EPA works with an independent third party to classify home products that meet water efficiency criteria

The WaterSense label appears on low-flow shower heads starting in 2010

*It is important to note that WaterSense considers a flow rate of 2.0 gpm or less to be “low-flow”

ImpactsIn the US we consume

approximately 340 billion gallons everyday

Showers account for about 18% of home water use

Let’s consider how much water you can save using a 1.6 gpm low-flow shower head…

BOE: Water Savings with a 1.6 GPM shower head

The amount of water that could be conserved nation wide in one year would fill more than 3 million Olympic swimming pools!

Technology Showerhead Flow Restrictors Primitive, early low-flow technology

Work by limiting water passing through unit

Seen in older fixtures

High customer

rejection rate

Not Advised

TechnologyAeration

In a shower-head, aeration works by mixing air into the water stream

Increases the volume of water

Less water can be used to wet the same area

TechnologyPressure Compensating Flow Regulator

Works through the expanding and retracting of a specific O-ring against a precision profile

Allows flow rate to be

maintained over variety of

pressure ranges

ProductsQuality models start around $25

Alsons Water Amplifying

Delta Transitional

$60

Evolve RoadRunner

$40

$26

$25

Bricor EcoFIT

ProductsWhat to look for in a L-F Shower

Head

Clearly marked maximum GPMWaterSense certification logo No removable flow restrictor Features such as

Aeration A pressure compensating flow regulator On-Off Switches and “SmartStart”

ProductsWaterSense Certification

WaterSense Tests:

Water efficiency

Spray coverage

Spray force

Do-It-Yourself ResourcesTesting your shower head flow

rate

WaterSense Product Search

How-To’s (installing shower heads…)

Energy Cost Calculator

Start Small…“A crucial part of the path to water conservation

involves paying close attention to the dimensions and scales that define how people interact with and understand water.”

– Helen Ingram, UC Irvine