It's Water-Wise Wednesday with Frannie the Fish {Showerheads}

Have you ever considered how much unused water goes down the drain while you are taking a shower?  Frannie is going to share with you a quick and easy way to find out how many gallons of water per minute come out of your showerhead.

Here's what you'll need:

• A bucket
• A measuring cup
• A stopwatch
• A calculator

Here's what you do:

1.  Hold the bucket under the showerhead and turn the water on full blast. 

2.  Let the water run for 15 seconds.
3.  Measure the amount of water in the bucket using the measuring cup. 

4.  Multiply this number by 4 for the amount of cups per minute.
5.  Divide this number by 16 (there are 16 cups in a gallon) to get the number of gallons per minute. 

 
6.  Be sure to use the water from your investigation to water house plants or refill a pet's water dish. 

For example: Frannie's bucket had 10 cups of water in it after 15 seconds.

10 cups x 4 = 40 cups/minute

40 cups/minute ÷ 16 cups/gallon = 2.5 gallons per minute.

So if Frannie took a 10 minute shower, she would have used 25 gallons of water.  That's a lot of water!  Some older showerheads use more water than this, if you find that your showerhead uses significantly more water, talk to your parent/guardian about switching it out for a water-efficient showerhead!

Use The Groundwater Foundation's free app for Android and Apple, 30 by 30 to find out how much water you are using in your other daily activities and learn ways to conserve water!