Quick links:
- How your favourite song can cut carbon emissions
- The psychology of making new habits fun
- Why 5-minute showers are great
- Other ways to save energy in the shower
- Why you should save energy
- Other ways to save energy
Simple choices like choosing energy from greener suppliers is an amazing start when it comes to cutting your carbon footprint.
- Using renewable electricity produces up to 69 times less carbon than the same amount of energy from non-renewable fossil-fuels.
Coal vs. Nuclear energy. Source: CO2everything.com
But most homes in the UK use gas (a fossil fuel) to heat their homes and hot water.
- Carbon is always released when you use gas.
- Reducing the amount of gas you use at home is always going to be better for the environment.
Disclaimer: Domestic energy use isn't the whole story! Governments and industry need to do the real heavy lifting. More on that below👇
How to save save energy with your favourite song
It's more how you use it than the song itself. Showering only for as long as your fav song lasts is one of our favourite ways to save energy with a simple daily habit: Short Shower Power.
Choose a song to save energy:
- Pick a song you love thats 5 mins long (or thereabouts)
- Here's our playlist if you need some inspo.
- Press play as you step into the shower.
- Please don't get your phone wet 😨
- Get squeaky clean and turn off the water before the song is done!
- That's it!
About one in three people already listen to music in the shower, according to a YouGov poll, so this could be a super easy change.
There are other ways to stick to 5 minutes, of course. Your phone's timer function, or a cooking timer, works just as well.
If five minute showers aren't your thing, but you do want some easy ways to save energy, check out some other energy-saving ideas.
Here's why a song is our recommended short-shower hack:
- Research shows that new habits that are fun or enjoyable are a lot more likely to stick.
- This is especially true for habits with a bit of delayed gratification
- e.g. spending less, or saving energy/reducing carbon emissions
- Our brains can struggle to prioritise things that don't have an immediate benefit, even if we know it's a good thing!
- Choosing something fun means your brain thinks it's already gotten its reward, so it's a good way to set yourself up for success.
- This means that new trainers for the gym, or fun notebooks for boring note taking could be 100% justified!
- Here's one of the research studies if you want a bit more insight!
If the average UK adult took five-minute showers they could:
- Cut carbon emissions for the shower by 40%(ish)
- Save 168g of CO2 saved per shower by heating less water.
- That’s about 336g of CO2 saved per One Utility Bill customer household per day.
If all One Utility Bill customers took five-minute showers:
- About 2700kg carbon emissions could be saved each day!
- Or more than 996,000kg of CO2 saved a year.
That's the same amount of carbon it takes to make 2.49 million cups of coffee ☕️
OR drive the distance to the moon (and back) 15 times in an electric car 🌝👋🚗
All of these numbers are estimates based on average water and energy use for many shower types in the UK. These things will vary based on your water flow, shower type, temperature and shower frequency. Coffee and moon-driving numbers based on data from co2everything.com
Read more about the benefits of shorter showers.
I have Unlimited Energy - couldn't I take showers for as long as I like?
Absolutely, yes. You're paying for Unlimited Energy, so you don't have to read any of our energy-saving tips, let alone follow them.
But, stats from the Office of National Statistics show that 86.5% of UK adults have made changes to their lifestyle to reduce their environmental impact, so it's a safe bet that small changes are something a lot of our customers will be interested in.
But if you're an Unlimited Energy customer, energy is actually unlimited, so you do you.
If you have a capped energy package, any energy saving is going to convert into pennies and pounds saved too!
Other ways to save energy in the shower
If five minutes just doesn't sound doable for you, let's look at other ways to save energy in the shower. Remember: these are all just suggestions and tips. If they're not for you, that's all good. Some of them are a bit of a leap 👀
Turn the water off when you don't need it 🚫
You don't really need the water to be running the whole time you're in the shower. It can be turned off while you're shaving, conditioning, doing your skincare, etc.
Check out this tutorial from JVN to see how they do it!
@jvn_official Lets go in depth on hair washing 💅🏻 #washday #haircare ♬ original sound - JVN
- Running the water not only wastes water and energy, but it can wash away conditioner and skincare products so you don't get the full benefit.
- JVN used the time while their conditioner sat to exfoliate, but you could do your skincare, shave, rehash a conversation from your day...whatever you like.
If you're an everything shower sort of person, but don't like the idea of wasting so much water or energy, this could be the compromise for you!
Turn the temperature down on your shower 🚿
Dermatologists and haircare experts recommend cooler water for healthier hair and skin. And cooler water means less energy is needed, so it's a double win.
A nice hot shower has proven stress-relieving benefits, which you already know if you've ever had a longer shower after a stressy day. BUT exposing your hair and skin to hot water too often and for too long strips away the oils that keep them healthy.
A healthy skin barrier is key for a healthy immune system too.
The ideal shower temperature for your skin is between 37 and 41℃. It should feel slightly warmer than your skin. Test with your wrist, not your fingers. The skin there is more sensitive.
Take cold showers🥶
Another one that definitely isn't for everybody ☃️ BUT you might already have seen the ice bath/cryotherapy trend in wellness spaces online. The people taking part in the ice bath trend claim it's boosted everything from their metabolism to their mental health.
Some of these claims seem to be backed by science, and the good news is you can get a lot of the same benefit from a cold shower! Way easier, and cheaper, than spending a few hundred quid on an ice bath pod.
This trend could save a ton of energy and carbon emissions too! The science on the health benefits might vary, but the energy thing is 100% guaranteed.
Remember: Heating water is one of the most energy-intensive things we do in the home, so if you shower with no heat...you're not using any energy.
We don't have the stats on this, but you'll probs save tons of water too. There's a good chance that a cold shower = a shorter shower.
Shower less often 👀
Dermatologists and environmentalists agree that showering daily isn't actually necessary for most people.
Obviously if you work a manual job, go hard in the gym every day, or rely on showers for stress relief or some chill time, this isn't the approach for you.
But if you're into healthy skin barriers, saving time, and saving energy...it might not be as crazy as you think. The BBC even published an article in April 2024 titled There's no need to shower every day - here's why, which sounds like a pretty good starting point if you haven't already run for the hills.
Sometimes when we share this kind of stuff, we get emails from people upset that we're trying to dictate their life choices, so we just want to be super clear that these are just suggestions. Shower however you like!
My supplier offers renewble energy. Do I still need to save energy?
Renewable energy is AMAZING. It creates up to 69 times LESS carbon than fossil fuels.
One day of energy use in an average home produces:
- 0.36kg of carbon with nuclear or wind-generated energy.
- That's 360g. The same weight as less than half a loaf of bread.
- 25kg of carbon with coal-generated energy.
- That's 31.25 loaves of bread.
So when we say it's an amazing step for reducing your environmental impact, we mean it.
But governments haven't invested heavily enough in renewable sources for them to meet all of our energy demand yet. This means that the higher our energy demand, the more of that demand has to be met with fossil fuels, which means more carbon emissions.
This means that the greenest energy is the energy you don't use!