The Monster in the Bathroom

There’s a monster in the bathroom. It roars with an unrelenting fury that scathes everything in its path. Its raw force has the power to scour skin and irritate eyes. There’s a monster in the bathroom, and it looks like this:

showerhead

That’s right; it’s your bathroom shower head, but indeed it can easily be mistaken for a torture device that protrudes from the tiled walls. On my first night on campus, I walked into the shower, ready to be enveloped by a soothing cascade of warm water–just the right temperature. But what issued forth from the nozzle was an abrasive spray of water pellets that was concentrated on my back. Looking up, what was on the wall was unlike any shower head I was familiar with–the ones with a field of small nozzles, each one responsible for issuing a small jet of water. Combined, all the jets form a gentle shower of water. In contrast, the standard-issue Penn State shower heads consist of a small chamber that serves to aerate a high pressure stream of water into a spray. This is likely why the water pressure cannot be adjusted in Penn State showers; the shower head relies on the relatively high pressure to create its stream. Additionally, the barrel-shaped design facilitates easy cleaning and a greatly reduced chance of blockage from mineral deposits found in hard water.

 

The most obvious reason for the special shower heads is water savings. I did some probing on the Internet for information about low-flow shower heads for commercial applications and eventually found this website for High Sierra Showerheads/, a company that also specializes in manufacturing shower heads for use in prisons (that must be why they’re so luxurious). Indeed, the FCS-100 model looks exactly like the ones down the hall. These shower heads are, as expected, special models for commercial applications, where the potential for massive water savings exists. The FCS-100 is rated with a 1.5 gallon per minute flow rate. US legislation passed in 1992 placed a limit on the flow rate of shower heads at 2.5 gallons per minute, but High Sierra Showerheads takes the standard one step further.

 

But as much as I (and my scathed skin) hate to admit it, I think these shower heads are a great idea, and I applaud Penn State for its commitment to the environment. With upwards of 13,000 students living on campus, the water and energy savings from low-flow shower heads are very significant. With a 2.5 GPM shower heads, each of these students showering once a day for 10 minutes–a rather conservative estimate for college students–equates to an astounding 2,275,000 gallons of water just for one week’s worth of showering (not to mention other water usage and the energy required to heat that water and then process it at a wastewater treatment facility). A 1.5 GPM shower head can reduce that water consumption by 40%–that’s a reduction of over 13 million gallons of water per semester. And I think we can all agree that a bit of discomfort in the shower is a reasonable tradeoff for millions of gallons of water savings.

Comments

  1. Whoa, Nick. Nice post. I had no idea about the extra-low-flow shower heads. I sort of wish I had something similar in my apartment, even though I don’t have to pay for water where I live now. I’m not sure what Austin addresses in his comment–I didn’t realize there were faculty who live on campus.

  2. I really enjoyed reading this post. I really helped to justify my pain, suffering, and surprise when I initially hopped into own of those torture chambers, ahm, I mean showers.
    The only gripe I have with the shower heads is that they didn’t really give students a choice in the matter. Sure, they are saving water on campus, but you can also probably bet that the faculty that live on campus do not have to put up with those high pressure nozzles.
    All in all, I really enjoyed reading you blog. Keep up the good work.

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