Shower too powerful

Shower too powerful

A shower should only use about six to ten litres of water a minute, but many use much more. Many use 18 litres a minute, and some up to 25 litres.

If your shower is using too much water, you’re wasting money on electricity and possibly on water charges. If you have an eight-minute shower every day and the shower uses 18 litres per minute, you’re using more than 52,000 litres of water a year, and the water heating will be costing you more than $440 a year (based on electricity cost of 18c/kWh). Reducing the flow to 6L/min would cut power costs alone by two thirds, that’s saving you $293 a year.

To test your shower’s flow:

• Set the shower at the temperature and flow you normally use.
• Hold a bucket underneath it and measure how much water you collect in a minute.

If you get more than 12 or 13 litres in a minute, you can save energy and water by doing one of the following:

• Not turning the mixer on to full flow when you use the shower.
• Installing a flow restrictor.
• Restricting how far you can turn the shower mixer on by adjusting the mixer. You may need a professional to do this.
• Fitting a low-flow showerhead.