Save Energy By Installing High Efficiency Shower Heads In Your Home
The world today is all about saving energy. We do this by turning off lights when we are not using them, by installing high efficiency appliances within our homes, and by upgrading our homes with high efficiency windows, doors, and siding. We can also save energy by installing high efficiency shower heads in our bathrooms. There are showering heads that are called low flow rate shower heads. These shower heads are tagged this name because they have a flow rate of using less than 2.5 gallons of water per minute when you are taking a shower.
There are federal regulations that are put into place now for high efficiency shower heads. They cannot exceed 2.5 GPM when the water pressure is 80 PSI. This is put into place in order to help save hot water consumption. You will find that there are two types of shower heads that are high efficiency. These types include aerating and laminar-flow. If you have an aerating shower head, you have one that mixes air with water, which will give a spray mist when in use. Using a laminar-flow shower head will give individual streams of water when in use.
Both of these high efficiencies shower heads will save energy on hot water consumption. It is the consumer’s preference at which one they would like to use. It is best to use the laminar-flow type of shower head if you happen to live in a humid atmosphere. This is because it will not cause as much moisture and steam in your shower. In order to make sure your shower head is efficient, you want to make sure you replace it if you bought it before 1992, or if it is a model that was made before 1992.
Another way to find out if high efficiency shower heads are really efficient is by taking a large bucket and placing it in the shower under where the water will hit when the shower is on. You want to place marks on the bucket in one gallon increments. You will then want to turn your shower on at the rate of pressure that you would normally use when taking a shower. You will then want to time how long it will actually take in order to get the bucket filled up to your first gallon mark. You should replace your shower head to a low-flow shower head if it takes less than 20 seconds in order to fill up the gallon.