Energy efficiency benefits your conscience, the planet, and your energy bills (if you're not an Unlimited Energy customer).
Here's an easy way to keep your energy costs and your carbon footprint down EVERY DAY with one easy habit.
Reasons to save energy with a shorter shower
Energy bills were a BIG discussion topic during the energy crisis, and while energy prices are slowly coming down, saving energy to reduce our envrionmental impact is always going to be a BIG deal.
The Office of National Statistics says:
- 75% of UK adults care about the environment.
- 86.5% have made changes to their lifestyle to reduce their impact on the environment.
Reducing your energy consumption is one way to do your bit for the planet, and a shorter shower is such an easy step to do just that.
An Unlimited Energy package means you always pay the same for your bills, no matter how much gas and electricity you use, but that's no reason to skimp on showing the planet some love.
Saving energy AND water = two reasons to feel good
About 5% of the UK's carbon emissions come from heating water at home, according to the Energy Saving Trust. It's also the biggest use of energy at home, after central heating.
Creating heat is an energy intensive process, so your tumbledryer, washing machine and hair dryer are all going to be energy intensive and rack up the numbers on your smart meter.
So let's talk...SHORT SHOWER POWER.
How hot water affects your energy usage
- The average UK adult spends about eight minutes in the shower according to YouGov.
- An eight-minute shower uses about 138 litres of hot water. Every drop of water needs to be heated, so even an extra minute in the shower can really add up.
- Even modern boilers use a lot of energy to prevent you from showering in cold water.
- Different types of boiler, hot water heater or hot water tank, could use even more.
- Basically, no matter your hot water situation, whether gas boiler or electric water heater, hot water uses tons of energy so less hot water = big energy savings.
- Even modern boilers use a lot of energy to prevent you from showering in cold water.
- To put the amount of water into perspective, for every shower you need to use enough energy to heat 138 big bottles of water.
- The amount of water and energy you use per shower will of course differ depending on your water pressure, shower head, the type of shower you use, and of course how you heat your water.
- BUT it's always true that the less time you spend in the shower, the less water and energy you use.
Most people shower every day, so if you're looking for a small, daily change to shrink your carbon footprint , a shorter shower time is the way to go.
Pro tip: Anything in your home that generates heat, like a tumble dryer, uses a lot of energy, even energy-efficient appliances need to use a lot of energy to generate heat. So keep an eye on your usage!
Here's how much energy the average One Utility Bill household could save with shorter shower time
Doing the 5-minute shower thing saves
- 168g of CO2 saved per shower by heating less water.
- That’s 336g of CO2 saved per OUB house per day.
- And 1126.6kg of CO2 saved every day by OUB customers
- 411,088.55kg saved every year if all One Utility Bill customers kept their showers to 5 mins.
- That's enough to make more than 1.2 million cups of coffee, or drive to the moon and back more than 5 times.
Doing the short shower thing…
- Cuts carbon emissions by 40%(ish)
- Saves 36 litres of hot water
- If all One Utility Bill customers embraced Short Shower Power, you'd save 241,416(ish) million litres of hot water every day, you absolute legends.
- That’s enough to fill about half a million grande coffee cups every day.
- That's more than 88 million litres of water a year
- Or 13 Olympic swimming pools each year
- Or 1.1% of the water in Loch Ness every year. Turns out Loch Ness is pretty massive.**
This is amazing news for your energy bills or your water meter, if you have one!
Cut your household's energy consumption with Short Shower Power
Here's how to save energy on your heating bills by cutting down your hot water usage.
- Embrace Short Shower Power with our Short Shower Power playlist
Pick a song and challenge yourself to get clean before it's done. They're all between 4-5 mins. - Keep an eye on your postbox 👀
We're sending some One Utility Bill customers a shower timer in the post. Much easier than getting the stopwatch out. - Invest in a water-efficient shower head
Grab a shower head designed to reduce the amount of water you use and make energy conservation super easy.
They just screw onto the shower host in lot of showers, but make sure you check before you order. If you have an electric shower, you don't need to worry. They're already designed to conserve water.
There are a few different kinds of low-water shower head, which are explained in more detail at the link by the brilliant people at The Green Age.
How else can I bring down my energy consumption?
If you're on board to take a shorter shower, here are some other everyday energy saving tips to save carbon emissions (and a bit of money, if you're not an Unlimited Energy customer).
- Check out our rundown of energy-saving myths
Insulate - especially if your house has a low energy rating to keep the heat in if you can.
Heat loss is a BIG energy-waste culprit. Heat escapes in door cracks, through thin windows and uninsulated walls, meaning that you need to have the heating on for longer to heat your house.
The Energy Savings Trust are all over this with some great tips. (Obvs. They're the experts.)
Keep an eye on other hot water wasters.
Fill the sink with hot tap water, rather than running the tap when you're washing up. The Energy Saving Trust says this could save 10 litres of water a minute!
Turn the tap off when you're brushing your teeth!
It's really easy to turn a mixer tap to "hot”, and every second the hot water is running, you're using energy.
Check your light bulbs!
LED bulbs are by far the most energy-efficient light bulbs, but basically anything you can do to change over from old-fashioned incandescent bulbs is a great step. Inefficient lighting can really bump up your electricity usage.
There are lots of ways to cut your energy, but there's no need to make a big change overnight, especially if you're adjusting to life at uni. Why not pick one thing to change and go from there?
Energy suppliers give some really handy ways to keep an eye on your energy usage, like smart meters, so check out our energy-saving tips blog if you want even more ways to cut your usage down.
Short Shower Power could be a game changer, but you do you.
Don't forget to check out our Short Shower Playlist and try to finish your shower before your chosen song is over.
**7452000000 litres or 7,452 million cubic metres. JSYK.