Ordered a low flow shower head for the kid’s bathroom - American Standard Flowise
 

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1392149446

A couple weeks ago I put a lower flow shower head for the master bedroom shower. That is before I changed my tankless water heater. It did not flow enough to keep the water hot. I now have my new water heater in and the low flow shower works great.

I am now going to put in American Standard Flowise for the kids bathroom

American Standard Flowise 5-1/2 in. 3-Spray Water-Saving Showerhead in Polished Chrome-1660.717.002 at The Home Depot

I just ordered it today but it has good reviews. I will give a review after it gets here.

American Standard 1660.717.002 Flowise 3 Function Water-Saving Showerhead, Chrome

Cool stuff. Low flow showerheads are such a ridiculously simple way to reduce your energy consumption. There is a good selection these days too, so no real reason not to do it. I've had picky people use my 1.25 gpm Niagara Conservation (which is about $10 on amazon) and they never even know its a low flow head. The energy savings are pretty huge too. With a 2.5 gpm showerhead I would be using about 4 kWh per shower with my on demand electric hot water heater. With my 1.25 gpm showerhead, it cuts that usage in half!

We have NG water heater, and the way the price structure is set up from the gas/water companies it discourages conservation. High monthly fixed charges ($80/mo between the 2) with minimal cost for usage. 1000 gallons of water is $2, Natural gas is 50 cents per therm. If I use the whole 50 gallon tank and it takes an hour for the 40,000BTU burner to recover, a 30 minute shower costs about a quarter. A normal 10 minute show costs less than a dime in water/NG costs. $6/mo for the wife and I on showers, Kids still take baths. Installing new 1.5GPM shower head (current is 2.5GPM) would save $2/mo for us.

Unfortunately the trend isn't good, utilities are raising the fixed monthly fee portion of the bill at a much faster rate than the fuel/energy costs. If government really wants to reduce energy use they need to stop subsidizing the cost of energy itself, and let the true costs show. IMHO its a much better solution than the government intervening with regulations such as banning light bulbs..

If you got the earth showerhead that would be a 5 month ROI. Its not a huge savings, but its better than a LOT of other energy saving stuff, so why not?

I've tried low flow shower heads in the past and didn't have much luck with them. Seemed like they didn't allow enough water to flow to get a "full shower".

Your natural gas is a great price we are $1.24 per therm and they have a $7.50 meter charge on top of that.

We have a $28/mo meter charge for gas!! For us the meter charges over a year's time exceed the cost of gas. That $28/mo charge sucks in the summer when we are using $5 worth of gas..

I have a $45/mo meter charge on my water meter. When I looked it up in the utility's annual report, it said in no uncertain terms that the high meter charge was to avoid large swings in revenue due to fluctuations in weather. 1000 gallons of fresh water costs me $1.57, including sewer fees. The 4000 gallons of water I use each month are actually just a small blip on my bill in comparison to the meter charge!

I now have the new shower head installed. I took a shower with it today and my son took a shower last night. I really like the look of the new shower head.

He is 11 but he will be using it the most. He thought on low setting it was too strong and it hurt coming out. He liked the third setting and that setting uses 2gal per min.

My youngest son tried it and he likes the 1.5 gal setting the best this is good because he cant reach the settings to change it and it defaults to the lowest setting every time to promote water Conservation.

I used it and the lowest setting and it did not hurt I was good for all but rinsing my hair I switched to the second setting for that then is switched back to the 1.5 gal setting.
I like it I think it is a good compromise on conserving while still getting a good shower.

It is better than the old shower head that used a lot of water and did not feel as good as any of the setting on this new shower head.

Those stupid low flow shower heads barely work if you don't have really good water pressure.
I have gotten in the habit of just gutting out the flow restriction.

I have come up with 2 revolutionary ways to save water with an unrestricted shower head:
Turn down the water flow.
And the biggest one, turn the water off when you soap up.

Turned down I use less than 2 gallons per minute.
Turned up to full blast its close to 4gpm.

That comes in handy when filling a mop bucket or water jugs.