Success!

I have tried the new low-flow showerhead for a couple weeks now, and I have to say I am very pleased with it. The water pressure is pretty good, and I don't feel like I am waiting for water to rinse me off. I am, however, disappointed with the "pause" setting on the showerhead. The pause setting was intended to make it easy for me to take military style showers where i turn the water off while lathering up. The knob used to turn it to "pause" was stiff, and the showerhead usuall fell out of the holder when I tried to turn it. This was a big pain in and of itself. Also, the "pause" setting did not actually turn the water flow off. Rather, it decreased the flow to a drip. I guess that saves more water than not decreasing the flow at all, but I thought it was lame.

Overall, I was happy with the showerhead. I am just giving up on using the "pause" feature. It is not worth it for the showerhead to fall down when I use the feature.

Low Flow Showers

One of my guilty pleasures ecologically is having a standard shower head. No, it is not low-flow, and no, I do not turn it off while lathering up. I have it running for a full 15 minutes.

I was in Home Depot today for a light bulb errand when I came across the fancy low-flow shower head that has five massage modes and can "pause", or turn off, while you lather up. It said it can do all this while using 1.5 gallons per minute and maintaining excellent water pressure. I haven't taken it out of the box yet. I will let you know how it turns out. I'm hoping this low-flow shower head converts me to greener ways. I'm holding onto my original shower head until proven differently....

Less Dryer, More Drying Rack

I decided after watching a YouTube video from CommunityChannel that if she is randomly commenting about how dryers are energy hogs, that maybe I should look into using a drying rack... I already owned the rack, but had been using it for any items that needed to be dried flat. So, there was no added cost or consumerism. And so, I began drying my clothes this way.

Drying rack limitations I noticed: 1) I only have room for drying one load of laundry at a time, and 2) towels don't dry very well - they start to get moldy smelling before finally drying the next day (I'm sticking with using the dryer for these). That being said, I saved $10 / month by just using a rack. I was so excited because this is about 15-20% of my energy bill.

Highly recommended. What have your experiences been??