Are water saving showers and faucets just about saving water?

When it comes to water saving many people would agree, that it’s important to save this valued resource and use it consciously. Especially if the resource is becoming more scarce or due to rising prices.

Few, however, realise the amount of energy required to heat up or treat the grey water. Especially the heating of water is often a forgotten topic. While we are installing solar panels at increasing rates, which provide clean renewable energy and are installing LED lights throughout our buildings. Showers and aerators are a hidden opportunity. The warm water consumption in a house (bathroom and kitchen)  consumes up to 20% of a households energy use (equivalent to a month of heating in winter) and is therefore also a significant contributor to our CO2 footprint.

Have you ever measured how much water is coming out of your shower? What it’s flow rate is in comparison to other showers? Ever since I founded Sparcio, I regularly ask this question and unfortunately, most have no clue. If you don’t know your flow-rate, how do you know if you can save water and energy?

When I visit customers to analyze their water usage I always make a calculation of their potential savings when they would install our solutions. In this calculation, I calculate the water and sewage costs, but I also add the energy costs. Adding the energy savings to the calculation makes an impressive difference. Often reducing the payback time of our solutions by half.

It’s very simple to measure your water consumption. This is normally expressed in liters or gallons per minute. Just take a bucket and your phone. Put on the shower and see how much water you consume in one minute. Without knowing how much water you are using, how could you know you have the potential to save? Use our calculator and see how much water you could save with our solutions.