Taking a Shower or a Bath: Which One Uses Less Energy and Gets You Cleaner?

Quite the evolution took place over 233 years of America in how we bathe ourselves. And it might give clean freaks the shivers to think that less than 150 years ago, Americans (not just cowboys and cowgirls) were managing to sit inside tiny cast-iron bathtubs to get a full body wash as an antithesis to the Ancient Romans who thought more modernly about bathing. But the Roman way of bathing, including their penchant for bathing in groups, ultimately became shoved under the bathroom rug in most other parts of the world. Where the idea started in later centuries throughout Europe that cleanliness wasn't necessary was either a brainwash from royalty or an evolutionary affinity toward insanity.

Daily bathing, however, wasn't in the daily planner for many, right up to early 20^th century America, despite people still managing to be close to one another. And showering was considered an oddity until the latter half of the 20^th century when philosophies on getting truly clean came to a better point of evolvement. So did the shower itself. It somehow went from the look of an oddball, lever-happy invention by the hand of a crazed inventor to a simple step-in domain with two water handles and a sophisticated shower head capable of all things, including some unmentionable in a family article.

Then we stepped into reality future when dealing with the news how those seemingly harmless shower heads may be spraying bacteria right into our eyes.

That leaves the sometimes fascinating situation of modern society being stunned into a quandary over how to modify their habits thought to be immemorial. It's only been less than 40-50 years since we evolved to the point where we realized taking a shower every morning was important in order to interact effectively with society. For some people during those years, taking a bath still carried over and became the chosen path toward getting clean.

I'm sure most of us would admit that we all took baths for a long time as children before getting acclimated to the shower. Here's my own admittance that I only took baths for my first ten years before finally being brave enough to get under that giant waterfall in a stall with the cold floor. And here's more admittance that I usually felt cleaner after a bath than I ever have bathing in a shower.

For those who can't live without taking a shower every day and wouldn't even consider bathing in a bathtub unless it's officially designated a Jacuzzi, taking a bath might be worth your time for a better soak in soap and water. But is it really the best way to bathe if you're in a household trying to save money?

When you find out, you might be placed into another quandary along with the shower addicts. It means a strange compromise on budget and cleanliness.

Most families who own a home battle the water bill constantly, right along with members of the family who enjoy taking long showers. This might prompt parents to start thinking baths for the kids (and themselves) are a better money-saving option. Well, at first sight that might be the case. Since we're sometimes visual-oriented in seeing how money is wasted, seeing water pouring out of a shower head for more than ten minutes may turn into a hallucination of cash raining onto the shower floor and down the drain. Likewise, filling a tub with water and then turning the water off gives the visual sense of conserving water.

It'll depend on how old your house is and whether the bathrooms have been upgraded. If your house is more than 17 years old and bathroom appliances haven't had an upgrade, then taking a shower of any length would probably be raising your water bill. This depends on whether you had a flow restrictor showerhead installed in your shower when they first became available in the early to mid 1990's. You can supposedly keep water usage to around ten gallons when using a flow restrictor head and showering for only four minutes. As usual, all that goes out the window if you shower for up to 15 or 20 minutes.

Keep in mind, though, that if you haven't upgraded to a flow restrictor head, even a four minute shower will use about 20 gallons of water. That's just right behind a bath that generally starts at 30 gallons of water usage and can go all the way up to 50 gallons, depending on how deep you want the water.

With that, taking a shower is still going to save you money, even if all that bacteria from your dirty showerhead is going into your eyes and nose. Of course, even that's fixable with further showerhead upgrades. If by chance you're comfortable financially and have no concern about using 30 to 50 gallons of water in a bath, the chances of getting cleaner in that scenario are almost guaranteed. Baths allow the soapy water around you to absorb into your skin and ultimately give you a thorough cleansing than standing under the water flow of a shower for a few minutes.

Naturally, a bath is going to take extra time, even though it's still possible in the mornings before starting your day if you get up a half-an-hour earlier. Whether it's a bath or shower for you personally, it's all going to depend on your finances and whether you're of the recent generations who hardly knows the concept of taking a bath and instead takes a shower as a daily ritual.

In a bath, however, your ability to relax and meditate while taking one may be worth the horrific visions of bathing in a tub full of money soon to go to the utilities.

Source:

http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/myths/shower_vs_bath.html