Saving Hot Water with a Digital Shower Timer

This week I would like to share with you my digital shower timer. As you can see it is set to 15 minutes. Sometimes I make it in that time and other times I don't. Let me explain....

While in high school I put my parents through water bill hell- My average shower length was around 30-45 minutes. This was my 'personal' time and my thinking time. There were many occasions when Dad was 'kind enough' to just shut the water off on me and other times they'd let it go. But this bad habit extended into my adult life and my own water bills. That's karma, I guess.

Now I cut back my water waste by using a digital shower timer. A very loud obnoxious timer. Every week or so, if I have beaten the time twice and gotten out before it goes off, I will drop it down a minute if I haven't met my goal I will move it up a minute. My goal is 10 minutes or less.

There are shower timers that will have settings like 3/8/11 minutes that hook up to your shower head and cut the water down in pressure when your time is up, which might be a good idea but the cost of 125.00 doesn't make my situation very cost effective.
Besides having a digital shower timer I bought a low-flow showerhead for $15 that has been very nice and has a good strong water pressure to it, and I have the water heater set to 120 degrees to save on heat but still kill the bacteria in the water - no one wants legionnaires. Plus I wash clothes in cold water to save on the heating bill. Overall, I have dropped the water bill down $15 a month and the heat bill has gone down $30 a month, not bad for doing something that doesn't ask for much sacrifice

For a list of ideas to save water-- 49 ways to save water, indoors and out