Shower Cost Calculator

Our shower cost calculator is an excellent tool if you've ever wondered: "How many gallons of water does a shower use?" Who doesn't love taking long, hot showers? Hardly anyone, we'd guess. However, despite being a fantastic way to relax after (or ahead of) a long day, taking a long shower also means using up a tremendous amount of water and energy (to heat it) as well as increasing your average price of water bill. We're not going to explore the environmental effects here, but they're certainly not very positive either.

According to statistics, showers are the third largest use of water in a household, after toilets and washing machines (and the latter sometimes get overtaken by showers, too). We believe the first step to limiting our water consumption is awareness, and this is exactly what this tool was designed to spread.

We based the calculations on the most popular electricity-powered water heaters and ran the equations around our office. Most people were surprised by how much a 10-minute shower costs. Will they limit their shower time or choose to shower less frequently? We should hope so.

Now, let's return to predicting average shower water consumption with our shower cost calculator. To give you the most accurate estimation, we will need several pieces of information from you. First of all, we need to know:

• How many people live in your household, how many showers they take on average, and what's the average duration of each.

• Based on your location, you can insert the latest water price and cost of energy in your area. These data are going to be used to calculate the average price of your water and energy bills.

• The last thing to consider is the shower flow rate, or the amount of water that's pushed through your shower head every minute. This will allow us to calculate how much water the shower uses. We set a default value already, but feel free to edit it depending on your shower head; it should be on the box.

• However, if you're unaware of this metric, you're probably good to go with what we set unless you shower with some super-efficient or ancient technology.

Based on these numbers, the tool will calculate the average consumption of shower water in your household. And knowing the 1,000 gallons of water price, we can tell you how much a shower costs you and what average water bill price you can expect per month or year.

Let's test our shower cost calculator with a practical example. Suppose you live alone and take a 10-minute hot shower to relax after a long day. To calculate its cost using our tool:

1. Enter the number 1 in the "People in household" field.

2. Select the shower duration as 10 minutes and set the number of showers per day as 1 for now.

3. Determine the 1,000 gallons of water price in your area; you can check it on your water bill or supplier's website. Let's assume that treated water costs you $3.5 per 1,000 gallons.

4. Set your shower flow rate. In this example, we will leave the default value: 2.08696 gallons per minute. Now, the calculator will tell you how many gallons of water a shower uses in 10 minutes.

5. Enter the price of kWh electricity, e.g. $0.17 per kWh.

6. And there we got it, let's take a look at the result! The single, 10-minute long shower will cost you $0.46 or $168.93 if you repeat it daily for a full year.

7. Don't forget that these are sample calculations for one person and 10 minutes for showering only 1 time a day. Play around with our shower cost calculator to count what the real average shower water consumption in your home will be. There are countless options, and this shower cost calculator will update automatically with every change.

Sounds like a lot of money? We can offer you some fun with numbers and a few pro tips on how to reduce your average water consumption:

• Lower the shower duration by just a minute and see how it affects the results;

• Investigate some water-saving shower heads and see how they would affect your spending;

• You might consider limiting your washes to just one per day;

• Brush your teeth at the sink, not in the shower; and

• Collect cold water from the shower into a bucket and use it to water your plants.

See our bath vs. shower water usage calculator to learn how you can save water by choosing one over the other.