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And not only that, but every time you turn the water off to soap yourself up, the temperature resets so you have to freeze and burn all over again! Pretty terri
by StavrosK 7y ago
And not only that, but every time you turn the water off to soap yourself up, the temperature resets so you have to freeze and burn all over again! Pretty terrible design.
- kube-system 7y agoAmericans don’t turn the water off in the middle of a shower.
- mcv 7y agoYou can save a lot of water that way, though.
- kube-system 7y agoI could, but with water at a penny per gallon, and natural gas at a couple dollars per million BTU, it’s a cheap luxury.
- StavrosK 7y agoFunny how dumping carbon into the atmosphere isn't priced in there.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- xur17 7y agoI would be interested to know how much addition carbon is used for each heated gallon.
- StavrosK 7y agoThat's an interesting question, but I think it's a bit moot; we don't have any leeway in the form of amount that's safe to emit. Anything we can save, we should save.
- ryanmercer 7y agoIt would be easiest to figure that out for on-demand hot water heating, if you're talking tank it'd be a bit more complicated. You also have to figure out if electric or gas for the water heater. This site has some good starting figures though https://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/waterheaters-figures.html https://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/waterheaters-figures.... >Groundwater 47°F, Heater set to 110°F: 63° rise x 8.33 Btu x 40 gallons = 20,992 Btus >Groundwater 47°F, Heater set to 120°F: 73° rise x 8.33 Btu x 40 gallons = 24,324 Btus >Groundwater 47°F, Heater set to 140°F: 93° rise x 8.33 Btu x 40 gallons = 30,988 Btus Average of 25,435 Btus. 0.000293 kWh/Btu for electric so something like 0.19 kWh per gallon for electric. Looks like 1lb of coal makes about 1kWh (wow!)[1]. 1 pound of carbon combines with 2.667 pounds of oxygen to produce 3.667 pounds of carbon dioxide. So roughly 0.7 pounds or 0.32 kilograms of CO2 per gallon of water in an electric water heater? The average American shower uses 17.2 gallons [2], so if you showered daily and only used hot water your CO2 from showers alone would very roughly be something like 2000kg annually. [1] http://www.coaleducation.org/lessons/twe/ctele.htm http://www.coaleducation.org/lessons/twe/ctele.htm [2] https://www.home-water-works.org/indoor-use/showers https://www.home-water-works.org/indoor-use/showers
- StavrosK 7y agoI know, but how do you soap up with the water running? You're just wasting soap and water by rinsing it off immediately as you apply it. I've never managed to have a good shower in the US.
- kube-system 7y agoI usually just step out of the stream of water.
- StavrosK 7y agoThat makes sense but seems wasteful when you can just turn it off and take your time, I guess.
- kube-system 7y agoSometimes I’m not sure how much of our habits can be attributed to cheap utility prices and how much can be attributed to differences in environmental opinion. Either way, this thread reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/oCDW_TSZjVg https://youtu.be/oCDW_TSZjVg
- yostrovs 7y agoIt's not that wasteful if you consider for much water is used by a toilet flushing after a wizz.
- StavrosK 7y agoThat's why I let it stew for four or five pees before I flush.
- StavrosK 7y agoAnd for a serious answer, our cisterns usually have two buttons, one which uses 30% of the cistern (for light flushing) and one which uses 100% of it (for heavy flushing). This is only possible in the low-water European toilets, obviously, US-style toilets where the water is already filling the bowl can't do this.
- rlonstein 7y agoMost step out of the water and leave it flowing. I install a flow control valve (aka "water saver") behind the shower head which lets you take a "Navy Shower" where you lather up without the water spraying.