Low flow shower heads presentation complete
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Transcript of 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