After writing my first article about bath versus shower. I was appalled by my shower length and felt determined to start taking shorter showers. I started timing my showers and was also putting an effort to take shorter showers. During the first month, I used a total of 250.88 gallons of water and had an average shower time of 8.36 minutes. During the second month, my water consumption increased to 313.33 gallons with an average shower time of 8.48 minutes. By the third month, I felt I had reverted back to my lazy habits and consumed a total of 358.92 gallons with an average shower time of 11.04. I wanted to try something else and decided to see how much water I could save by taking navy showers.
What is a Navy Shower?
The name “navy shower” (also goes by military shower or combat shower) comes from the types of showers men would take on naval ships that had a very limited supply of fresh water. The idea is you use water to wet your body and hair, turn off the water to lather, and then turn on the water only to rinse. This leads to a significant conservation of water. This type of showering is still used in situations where fresh water is scarce but has also been adopted by regular people who want to save water for ecological or economic reasons. Using less water in the shower conserves water but also the energy needed to heat the water, which is the second largest energy expense in homes after space heating (1). According to an article by Huff Post, a navy shower can reduce water consumption by 95% (2). And I wanted to test this out for myself, especially knowing that most of the time I waste in the shower is due to “relaxing” or “thinking”.
My experience
I wanted to try navy showers, but I didn’t want to be as extreme. I still wanted to follow my showering routine of washing and rinsing twice, using conditioner, washing my body, and then washing my face. So instead of only having one interval when the shower was off, I turned on the water only to rinse each time. While doing this, my average shower time (water on) went from 11 minutes to just under 4 minutes! My total water consumption in one month went from 359 gallons to 88 gallons. That’s a 75% reduction in water consumption! The reason I could not get 95% less was probably due to having multiple intervals and not necessarily rushing in the shower. I’m sure that I could conserve even less water if I put more effort into it.
My Impression
After taking navy showers for 1 month, here are my thoughts.
Benefits
- Save water: This is the most obvious benefit that I proved by timing my showers. Taking a military shower could save you as much as 95% of water. And even if you do a modified navy shower without rushing you can still save 75% of water.
- Save time: The total time with the water on was around 3.8 minutes, but my showers where slightly longer than that. I didn’t time then but if I could estimate, I would guess I spent as much time int he shower with the water off as it was on, making an average shower about 8 minutes. That’s still a pretty efficient shower.
- Save money: By using less hot water, we consumed less energy to heat the hot water. Because I only did it for a month, I don’t have an accurate representation of monthly savings, but that would be an interesting experiment.
Down sides
- Cold between rinses: Because I don’t excessively heat my bathroom, I felt cold when wet in the shower without the water running/ It definitely made the showers less pleasant which probably contributed to shorter total shower time.
- Restarting shower with cold water:My shower head has an option (a button to press) that shuts off the water without having to turn off the tap, which was convenient, but whenever I turned the water back on, the water was cold for the first few seconds. Not only did that make it uncomfortable for a few seconds, it also meant I was waiting a bit of water waiting for it to get warm again.
- Don’t feel as cleanI can’t explain why, but overall I felt less clean than when I took regular longer showers (more specifically my hair). I used to go 3-4 days without washing my hair but during the month where I was doing navy showers, after 2 days I felt like I really needed a shower. Maybe the total time my hair was exposed to water had an effect on how clean it actually got.
Tips/tricks
- Get a shower head that helps you easily turn on/off the water
- Try to keep your mind from wandering and help keep track of time by counting or reciting the alphabet in the shower
Conclusion
Despite the down sides mentioned above, I am not opposed to taking navy showers and will definitely continue to take them in the future. I really encourage everyone to give it a go, even if you don’t think you’ll like it. You never know until you try, and if you are motivated to use less water for whatever reason, navy showers are a sure way to do that!
References
(2) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/navy-shower-can-reduce-wa_n_170112
(3) https://naturalreplacements.com/learn/household/military-shower/