Wednesday, November 23, 2011

12-Year-Old Boys Shower the Longest, Says British Survey on Shower Habits



Doesn't everyone know that showers waste water? When it comes to those easy lists of how-to-go-green without pain, shorter showers and fewer baths top the chart.
But not in jolly old England, where people are taking 8-minute-long showers, according to a recent survey on showering habits. What do they do in there for so long?
Performed by Unilever, the survey reveals some interesting details on the nation's private life.
A survey of 2,600 showers taken by 100 families over a 10-day period found that the average shower lasted 8 minutes--much longer than the assumed time of five minutes for a shower. At that length, the shower used almost as much water and energy as the average bath and cost twice as much a year in water and electricity costs.
Apparently, an 8 minute shower used 62 litres of hot water, compared with an average bath's 80 litres. And if people used a power shower then the 8 minute shower used twice as much water and energy as a bath.
The findings have important implications because Unilever has estimated that around 95% of the greenhouse gases associated with shampoos, soaps and shower gels come from people using hot water when showering. It hopes that the new study will provide better understanding of shower behaviour which will help it develop solutions and products to counter this.
As for showering habits by sex: 12-year-old boys spent longest in the shower, averaging 9  minutes and 41 seconds. Girls were in and out in just 6 minutes and 34 seconds until the teenage years when their time rose to 9 minutes and 21 seconds.
Women were better multi-taskers: (what a surprise) taking shorter showers and brushing their teeth and shaving their legs at the same time. They spent 7 minutes 39 seconds on average during the week, while on Saturdays they took 8 minutes 55 seconds.
Men spent 8 minutes 5 seconds showering during the week.

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