Low Flow? Life's Too Short For One Reader
Speaking of going green…there are plenty of different opinions that get expressed in the Brownstoner Forum, some more eloquently than others. One particularly aphoristic statement recently struck us as an interesting jumping off point for discussion. In a post on water billing, one anonymous reader opined that, “Life is way too short to live with…
Speaking of going green…there are plenty of different opinions that get expressed in the Brownstoner Forum, some more eloquently than others. One particularly aphoristic statement recently struck us as an interesting jumping off point for discussion. In a post on water billing, one anonymous reader opined that, “Life is way too short to live with a low-flow showerhead.” The next response in the thread countered, “And life on earth will be a lot shorter for all of us if we have that attitude about resource use.” One website we looked at said that hot water usage can account for 25% of a household’s enery costs and argues that a low flow shower head can reduce hot water consumption by half without reducing the pleasure factor. So what do you think? Where do showerheads fit in the spectrum of environmental no-no’s? Those of you that don’t have low flow, is it out of laziness or an unwillingness to compromise on shower quality.
Water Billing Frequency [Forum]
Low Flow Shower Heads [BC Hydro]
I absolutely HATE those lo-flow things! You can’t get a decent shower because it takes much longer to rinse the soap and shampoo off. It is also not invigorating like a good hard wet shower is. You might as well take a–yuck–bath. In every apartment I rented I immediately replaced the lo-flow shower head with a nice powerful head.
Question:
Does it help the environment to conserve cold water in NY (given gravity is sending it to us and there is no fltering)? what about when the reservoirs are full? I don’t see any environmental impact.. if anything it makes the waste water treatment plants work less hard since the waste will be more diluted.
6:52 One of my New Year’s resolutions is to be nicer on the net, so I guess I wasn’t clear when I mentioned fiji water – I think the whole bottled water thing is absurd. Of course I also am looking at my house now. Rooms which once had one light bulb in the middle now have recessed lighting, sconces, etc. A lot more opportunity for energy use. OMG this computer itself is using energy. Must..turn…it…off…
6:52–“You don’t need a shower every day in the winter if you’re not out there exercising and sweating. You just don’t get dirty that fast.”
I do hope that at the very least you reccomend we shower every OTHER day to save our planet–believe it or not, men are chemically inclined to smell if they don’t shower often, even if they don’t exercise. To be frank, if everyone followed your reccomendation, we’d have some very smelly(er?) commutes on the subway each day.
Interesting that you bring up the Fiji water thing, 4:05. Tap water is perfectly safe to drink, and in NYC, it even tastes good. Drinking bottled water when you have tap available to you (i.e. at home, in restaurants, at work), and are not drinking some special water as a kind of special treat like you would wine (like you might get a bottle of Pellegrino when you’re eating out Italian) is one of the most wasteful, unethical choices you can make. Water is incredibly heavy, and huge amounts of carbon is put into the atmosphere getting it here from upstate NY, never mind FIJI! And let’s not get started on the waste of the packaging.
People these days are just so faintingly delicate. You don’t need a shower every day in the winter if you’re not out there exercising and sweating. You just don’t get dirty that fast. And you don’t need some kind of silly triple-filtered water, which tastes like water, by the way, shipped in to your tender self from the other side of the planet, at the cost of pounds of carbon per gallon. Whoever above was pointing out that we’ll all be using fewer resources one of these days was right: Europeans have been on this bandwagon a long time, and they’re no less clean and sophisticated than we are. I would argue they are more so, in many cases.
Interesting point on the drinking water in the toilet. Given that heretofore all water coming into NYC is basically untreated runoff in the mountains, I can’t think of what other water we could use in its place. Perhaps there has been a system designed where waste water from the sink, dishwasher, tub is routed for the toilet. But how would you repressure it? And are there sanitary issues? I guess the low-flow toilets were a response to this issue. More significant perhaps is the need for people to drink bottled water rather than tap water. I particularly wonder at the water from Fiji since I don’t particularly associate tropical regions with healthy water. Does any of this make a difference? Maybe not, but can it hurt? especially if it leads people to demand a government which actually plans for the future.
Too true, 2:46. There are ways to be eco-friendly without being slobbish
Thanks, Tim, for the link to Amazon for the 3-way bulbs. I’ll check it out. To “gpt,” not all of us are hippies…I’m not, never was, never will be. However, if I can contribute in some small way to saving energy, whether low-flow shower heads, special light bulbs, new toilets, low flow garden hose nozzles, soaker hoses, whatever, and I have the modest means to do it, I will not think twice. I don’t want to be part of the problem. The larger issue is convincing more people to conserve, even if it appears to be meaningless, as it does to Sylvia. We have to start somewhere, even though it seems to be quite late, and once again, our govt is slow on the uptake. At the very least, I’m doing my part and can sleep at night. Thanks.
“You can balance out a high flow shower head by not showering every day particularly in the winter.”
you COULD. or you could be clean.