Stupidly Simple low flow conversion

Well as the President of an alternative energy organization at my University I figured I should start greening my house a bit as well. Low flow faucets and fixtures are great and all, but why throw out my perfectly good hardware just to buy low flow? seems counterproductive. so i decided just to do it myself (might as well use those Mechanical engineering courses for something right?).

Here is a couple pics of my faucet and showerhead, my faucet has a 2.0Gpm aerator on it so i'll leave it alone for now, the showerhead however is a gross misuse of water.

Next i'll go through some simple tests to see just how much water it uses..... get your saucepans ready!

Step 1 Test

You can skip this if your trust me, if not go ahead and waste some more water......

1. Tape a measuring device to the wall, i used a tape Measure
2. Turn the water on full blast as a control
a. See how high the water goes (i took my measurement from the center of the stream)
b. Time how long the water takes to fill up your pan or measuring cup
3. Use this as a control for later in the instructable.

Comments

[Sabata]

Wouldn't it be little easier to run the water at full blast into a pot or bucket for 15 seconds (for example), measure the amount of water then multiply by 4 to get the gallons per minute?

I recently installed a low(er) flow shower head and used a stock pot that has markings on the side to measure the old and new heads. The old 2.5 GPM head put out 7 quarts in 30 seconds (yep, that's 3.5 GPM) and the new Niagara 1.5 GPM head put out 3.5 quarts in 30 seconds (1.75 GPM). I guess the ratings for these things are just rough estimates. ;-) Still, I like the new shower head. It works very well, the spray is not uncomfortable at all and it saves money because I cut the flow in half.

[VitoVonAntwon]

Hmmm, You could notch the edges and skip the puncture. It would even out the distribution of the water flow. I'm sure there is already water coming out of the edges, Just a thought. Tony

[Philysteak527]

Oh i'm sure there is water leaking out, you'd be surprised at how much water still flows through the cap with just the 1 hole. You could do it the way you described, but you'll only need to nick out one maybe two small pieces to get the same flow.

[mowdish]

On which planet do you live? I ask because your month is 21 days long while here on Earth our month averages 30 days. Were you living here things would work out even better. Assuming each person takes one 15 minute shower a day then

10.092 * 10people * 30 days - 3027.60 gallons saved each month
3027.60 * .003 cents/gallon = $9.08 / month * 12months = $109 per year.

[Philysteak527]

Thanks for catching that, was a typo that I carried through by mistake =)