The single, 10-minute long shower will cost you $0.46 or $168.93 if you repeat it daily for a full year.
A ten-minute hot shower uses 6 cents of natural gas, so the total cost comes out to $0.435. This means that a two-person household where each member takes two 10-minute showers a day can expect to pay $1.74 a day or roughly $635 a year in energy and water bills.
Generally, taking a shower uses less water than a full bath. A standard showerhead flows at a rate of 2.5 gallons per minute . This means that a ten-minute shower only uses 25 gallons of water.
Showers make up a huge share of water and energy consumption. In fact, showering for one minute consumes more energy than using the lights in a 3-person household for an entire day.
For an average middle-class household in South Africa (LSM7-10), a 10-min shower costs over R24 if you have a 'standard' 15 litre/min showerhead! This is about R2. 43/min. By changing to a low-flow showerhead and reducing shower time to 6 minutes, you can dramatically reduce this to about R7.
What costs the most on your electric bill? Heating and cooling are by far the greatest energy users in the home, making up around 40% of your electric bill. Other big users are washers, dryers, ovens, and stoves. Electronic devices like laptops and TVs are usually pretty cheap to run, but of course, it can all add up.
Following our calculations based on a 10-minute shower, you can expect to spend 73p per electric shower and 40p per gas shower. Overall, it's cheaper to run a gas shower. However, fear not, as there are plenty of ways to cut costs on your energy bills irrespective of what kind of shower you use.
With more water to heat, a shower costs more
This works out at 0.03kWh (kilowatt-hour) of energy per litre. Heating an 80-litre bath would therefore use 2.4kWh of energy and running a standard shower for 10 minutes (using 120 litres of water) would use 3.6kWh of energy.
An increased utility bill is often caused by a change in water usage or a leak. Some common causes of increased utility usage include: A leaking toilet, or a toilet that continues to run after being flushed.
Most dermatologists say that your shower should last between five and 10 minutes to cleanse and hydrate your skin, but no longer than 15 minutes to avoid drying it out. You can still benefit from the shower length you prefer, whether long and luxurious, quick and efficient or somewhere in the middle.
On average, approximately 70 percent of that water is used indoors, with the bathroom being the largest consumer (a toilet alone can use 27 percent!).
That's why Lipoff suggests using lukewarm water instead of hot (the higher the temp, the more it'll dry you out), keeping showers under 10 minutes, and going easy on the soap (which can also have a drying effect). Ditching washcloths and loofahs goes a long way, too.
How much water is used for the toilet flush depends on various factors. A standard cistern uses around 6 to 9 litres of water per flush, depending on the flush valve settings.
Furthermore, based on Department of Energy data, they calculated that the standard 1.6 gallon toilet costs 1.3 cents to flush. Since people flush about five times every day, the estimated cost of flushing the toilet is $24 per person per year.
If you have a low-flow showerhead installed, you can expect to use about two gallons of water per minute, equalling 20 gallons throughout a 10-minute shower. With a standard showerhead, around half a gallon more water will emerge each minute, so a 10-minute shower would use somewhere close to 25 gallons.
Water companies measure water usage in hundred cubic feet, or CCF. One CCF is equivalent to 748 gallons of water. If you shower 10 minutes every day for a year, you are using 9,125 gallons of water (12.2 CCF). If you take a bath filled halfway every day for a year, you're using 14,600 gallons of water (19.51 CCF).
Heating and cooling: 45-50%
The largest electricity consumer in the average household is your heating and cooling appliance. By a long shot. Central air conditioners and heaters use tons of energy in order to keep your home set to the right temperature.
If you have a large family or several occupants in one household, the rate will skyrocket. Even installing a high-efficiency toilet won't completely prevent you from seeing a noticeable increase in your water usage and cost. The average toilet uses between 1.6 and 3.6 gallons of water per flush.
Prefabricated shower kits are often more affordable than sourcing individual components separately. These kits provide a convenient and budget-friendly solution, as they are designed to work together seamlessly while minimizing costs.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a full bathtub requires about 70 gallons of water, while taking a five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons. You might argue that very few people fill the tub to the top, but a simple calculation shows that either way, baths use more water.
If you have a water meter, the more water you use, the more you'll have to pay. And with personal bathing making up 33% of our overall water usage, the amount you use when taking baths and showers will have a big impact on your bill.
Switch your shower to a gas model
'To save money, see if you can switch your shower to a model that heats your water with gas, which is currently 2.75 times cheaper than an electric model,' suggests Ben Dhesi, creator of HUGO.
The single, 10-minute long shower will cost you $0.46 or $168.93 if you repeat it daily for a full year.
It can be pricey to shower on the road. Truck stop shower costs are $10 on average. Some truck stops may charge up to $20. Drivers can avoid these truck stop shower prices by joining rewards programs and earning free shower credits.