Shower Better

Showering is an important part of the day—and one of the leading ways Americans use water in the home, accounting for nearly 17 percent of indoor water use. Every time you take a shower, you also use energy to heat the water to your showerhead. But you can shower better by replacing your old showerhead with a WaterSense labeled model and save water, energy, and money. By replacing just one showerhead with a WaterSense labeled model, EPA estimates the average family can save 2,700 gallons of water, the amount of electricity needed to power its home for 11 days, and more than $75 in energy and water costs every year.

Changes we make at home will add up quickly across the country. If every home in the US replaced existing showerheads with WaterSense labeled models, we could save more than 260 billion gallons of water and nearly $5.4 billion in water and energy costs across the country annually!

It takes energy to heat and deliver water to the bathtub, faucet, and other fixtures in your home that use hot water. Interested in knowing more about how saving water also saves energy? Learn more about the drops to watts connection. Kids can also play a role in saving both energy and water and we have a learning resource to help them find out how water and energy go hand in hand.

Make the Drops to Watts Connection (2 pp, 1.5 MB, About PDF)
Student Learning Resource (2 pp, 545 K, About PDF)

Two kids sitting on a bench playing guitars

Case Study—Learn how Cobb County Water System and Kennesaw State University (KSU) made a big splash for Shower Better Month in October 2014. KSU saved more than 650,000 gallons of water, reduced dormitory water use by about 28 percent, and saved $6,500 in water bills in six months by switching out showerheads to WaterSense labeled showerheads.

Cobb County Showers KSU with Campus-Wide Savings (2 pp, 310 K, About PDF)