Many of us are aware we have an impact on the planet but, as we know, there is a push to become aware with greater precision. One tool for this is the waterdrop, a shower meter marketed in Britain. Here is the blurb about it at the Ethical Superstore:
Statistics suggest that showering accounts for around one third of the total water used in the home. With each person in the UK using around 150 litres of water a day, this brings into question the accepted notion that showering uses less water than having a bath.The Eco Showerdrop Shower Meter is an ingenious yet simple device designed to help you keep track of how much water you're using. Easy to install, with no tools required, this is the world's first low-cost, universal shower meter. Just measure how long your shower takes to dispense a litre of water, then the display screen's uncomplicated graphics will help you monitor exactly how much water your shower is dispensing, and a simple alert tells you when the recommended amount (35 litre) has been used.
With this gadget installed in your eco-friendly bathroom not only will you be making savings on your water and energy bills, but each shower will be contributing to cleaning up the planet.
Surveys carried out by Waterwise and the Energy Savings Trust have found that if you follow the advice of the Eco Showerdrop and use only 35 litres of water per shower, a family of four could save over £180 on water and energy bills per year. As well as this, you would save over 40,000 litres of water and two thirds of a tonne of carbon.
Does the Waterdrop reduce water use? We know that it adheres somewhat to the principles of an injunctive norm (which we discussed with regards to emoticons and energy use): the waterdrop starts beeping when you use more than 35L. But does it work? The answer is probably yes for some people and no for others.
Enter, again, my friend and former scientist for the UK Energy Saving Trust, which markets a low carbon lifestyle to the British public. I talked about her in my very first post. She had a waterdrop in her shower when I visited her in Britain. Her response:
It doesn't do anything. It's not like you get an electric shock. Nothing happens. The alarm sounds and that's it. I imagined I used 4-5 times as much water as the average person but I actually used 51 L, which is nearly double but not nearly as bad as I thought.
As for me? Well, like most good Americans, I don't like being told what to do. So when it started beeping I stayed in the shower just to defy the waterdrop, which led to me feeling disappointed in myself (after all, what is all this awareness good for?).
Environment
Brain & Behavior
Comments
It's a fine idea, but it seems like something I could do with stuff around the house.
Posted by: ABradford | December 7, 2009 3:05 PM
The larger question is: Does the Waterdrop save more water than it takes to produce materials, manufacture, ship, and dispose of when it is no longer wanted. It might raise awareness initially, good I guess, but once the novelty wears off it is another disposable electronic device. Seems to me like once you figure out the water flow rate it is just avoiding what might be a useful exercise math for the kids.
I'm also unclear how 'saving water' works in the larger local and regional context. I'm in central Florida where we get a lot of rain and and the waste water gets diverted back into swamps after treatment. Where it returns to the water cycle via evaporation and percolation back into the aquifer. It isn't like the water is destroyed.
There is also the matter of larger metropolitan areas that covet the water here. So far the present use and regular dry season has meant that the local governments have been able to resist efforts to pipe our 'excess' down to Miami to water their golf courses. This has motivated Miami to institute fairly tight, by East coast standards, water restrictions and to look toward desalination and other methods.
This isn't simply a 'use it or lose it' proposition. It is but it it is attached to a huge emotional, political and economic lever. A lever that has few if any ecological inputs. Unreasonable as it may be in the larger scheme the argument that we 'need' that water carries a lot of weight and keeps several large pipeline projects out of the local supply. Eliminate this unreasonable argument by demonstrating an excess, an excess which is keeping the local wetlands alive, wetlands that don't register in these calculations, and the pipelines get built. Once built they will never go away or stop pumping because they will immediately gain a strong political and economic constituency.
The result of steady pumping to support south Florida will be a large reduction of discharges that keep local wetlands alive, a reduction of aquifer recharge through those wetlands, occasional local water shortages that will reduce surface water usage and further burden the aquifer, reduced pressure on population centers in south Florida to maintain and tighten water use restrictions, and lead to defunding of projects and research seeking to reduce water use and seek alternative cycles and supplies such as reuse and desalination.
Posted by: Art | December 7, 2009 5:25 PM
As someone with ADHD who can totally zone out in the shower for like an hour or more, something like this would probably help cut down on my water usage.
Posted by: History Punk | December 7, 2009 6:58 PM
History Punk @3 - "As someone with ADHD who can totally zone out in the shower for like an hour or more, something like this would probably help cut down on my water usage."
I love a long hot shower, my sinuses love long hot showers, and given a chance I would stay in the shower for a very long time. So I got creative some years ago.
A far easier method for limiting the duration of showers, assuming you don't have an on-demand, tankless, water heater, is to drop the temperature on your water heater. With a lower setting you use more water from the heater and once it is gone the shower get cold in a short time. The effect is that you can, with nothing more than a screwdriver, select the length of the shower by controlling the amount of hot water. Which saves both water and energy.
Lowering the thermostat setting on the water heater also drops the energy loss by the water during storage. As does insulating the tank.
It is possible to set a time limit on a on-demand, tankless. Commercial system sometimes place timers on the hot water line. But they aren't cheap or easy to install if your not familiar with plumbing and handy. Which may mean the Waterdrop may have some utility. But then again a $6 kitchen timer might work just as well. Takes some discipline to turn off the shower when the timer goes off but the Waterdrop requires no lesser amount of self-discipline.
Tweaking the water heater the end of the hot water tends cut the showers short. Unless your a wacko that likes cold showers. In which case your too far gone to help.
Posted by: Art | December 7, 2009 7:50 PM
"The larger question is: Does the Waterdrop save more water than it takes to produce materials, manufacture, ship, and dispose of when it is no longer wanted"
My impression would be that it depends on your lifestyle. If you live somewhere you're planning to stay for the next 20+ years, then a bucket, a stopwatch (or timer), and an alarm clock (or a bucket + anything electronic gadget with alarm & stopwatch/timer function - e.g. mobiles) will be a far eco-friendlier way to do the math.
If you move around a lot however (e.g. moving home every few years on top of week/month long visits to other places every year), the gadget would get used more than often enough to make up for it, and would be a useful permanent luggage companion.
Posted by: Rr | December 17, 2009 10:03 PM