DO YOUR PARENTS COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU SHOWERING TOO OFTEN?       

We had an inqiry where we asked 136 people picked at random in different age groups from Vennesla about how often they usually shower, and if they thought about the concequences of using too much hot water. We also figured out how much it costs to shower for a  minute with normal temperature. We split the inqiry into 4 age groups: children under 13, youths between 13 and 25, adults from 25 to 60, and senior citizens over 60. The reason was that we expected that youths shower more often than other age groups. This turned out to be true. Afterwards we asked if they thought about the concequences of using too much hot water. 94 of the 136 asked answered no, and only 42 answered yes.

HERE ARE THE RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY:

CALCULATING THE COST OF SHOWERING: 

Graduate engineer A. Arnkvern stated in his book "Vamt vann" ("Hot Water") following about the dimensioning of the showersystem. "Each person takes a shower for 4-6 minutes and on the average showertemperature 37`C with a showercapacity of 15l/min, the hot water demand is 1800 kcal."

In accordance with current prices in 1994 from Oslo Vann og avløpsverk (Oslo Waterworks and sewer system) and average price of electricity stated by NVE for the same year, we can put up the following arithmetical problem:

45 l water à NOK 2,53 per m^3 = NOK 0,12     

45 l sewer à NOK 5,93 per m^3 = NOK 0,27

1080 kcal à NOK ,40 per kWh   = NOK 0,50

                                                       NOK 0,89

22% sales tax                                 NOK 0,20

                                                       NOK 1,09

The price per shower per person is ca NOK 1,09 per minute. We can expect that these prices will rise in years to come.