What does a shower cost in water and heating?
A shower uses both water and energy for heating. The price depends on how long you shower, how much water the shower head delivers and how the hot water is produced. Here you can calculate with your own figures.
Worked example
- Water volume: 2.6417 gal/min
- Shower time: 8 min
- Cold water: 50 °F
- Shower temperature: 104 °F
- Efficiency of the heat source: 90 %
- Price per kWh: 0.30 USD
- Water and sewer: 11.00 USD
- Showers per week: 7
One shower costs
1.81 USD
21.1338 US gal · 2.7907 kWh of heat · heat 0.93 USD and water 0.88 USD
Per year: 659 USD
Water is counted as 8.345 lb per US gallon. Losses in the tank and pipes are not included.
Measure the water use of the shower
The amount of water per minute matters a lot. You can measure it by filling a container for a set time and converting to liters per minute. Use a temperature and a setting that match your normal shower.
The calculator shows the water cost and the heating cost separately. If the water price already includes wastewater, the same charge should not be added again. Fixed annual charges are normally not saved by a shorter shower.
How to look into a saving
Change one thing at a time
First try a shorter shower time with the same amount of water. Then try a lower flow. That way you can see the difference between changing habits and replacing the shower head.
Example with an eight-minute shower
At 10 liters per minute, 80 liters of water are used in eight minutes. Heating the water from 10 to 40 degrees requires about 2.79 kWh of heat without losses. The energy purchased depends on the heat source and its efficiency.
The saving also depends on the number of showers. Enter your own number per week or year if you want to see the annual economics. A complete system with a tank and pipes can have additional losses that do not necessarily change correspondingly when the shower gets shorter.