With a standard 3-Star, low flow shower head you are using 9L per minute in the shower, so for a 5-minute shower you would use 45L of water. It adds up pretty quick, even with a low-flow shower head.
Water in South Australia is expensive. If your household uses less than 328 litres per day, you be paying $2.32 / kL (source). As your daily use increases, so does your cost per litre, with it jumping up to $3.32 / kL for up to 1424 litres per day. According to SA water a normal family of 5, with a small garden, will use around 550L per day of water.
Bearing that in mind, a 5-minute shower will cost about 12 cents, plus the cost of heating the hot water. With five people showering most days, the water cost alone is about $18 per month (assuming you can keep it at 5-minutes per shower).
I don’t know about you, but no matter how quick I am in the shower there always seems to be times that the water is running needlessly.
Adding an trickle valve to your shower head ($11.00 from Bunnings) can potentially cut your shower water usage down by half, if used efficiently by all family members. With the numbers that we have been talking about, the valve could pay for itself in less than two months, making it definitely a worthwhile investment to look into.
Every little drop counts and the end results can only be seen at the end of the month when the utilities bill arrives in the mail. Therefore, we should try to save as much as we can and implement water-saving techniques whenever possible. I have seen people using a water catchment system whereby they store water inside a large storage tank and they use only that specific amount over a period of time. They do not exceed by even a drop. That is one good way to control water usage.
This trickle valve method has helped me personally to save water at home. Despite already implementing various water-saving techniques such as using a water storage tank to limit my water usage on a daily basis, this additional trickle valve solution helps me to be cost-efficient on another level.Â
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