[	Tags	|	bathing, experiments, water	]
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[	Current Mood	|	calm	]

For quite sometime I have been interested in how much water I consume for my bath. Though I would have loved to substantiate my observations regarding this with some precise volume measurements, all that I have now are some crude time-volume estimates.

Listing the most common ways of taking bath:

1. Fill water in a bucket and use a mug to pour water over the body
2. Use an overhead shower
3. Use a hand shower
4. Fill water in a bath tub and jump into it
5. Simple, use a deodarant/perfume

In India, the fourth method is not all that common. The fifth one might be, but that does not involve water economics. Out of the first three methods, it takes no rocket science to determine that the third one consumes the least amount of water for maximum body coverage i.e. the most bang for the buck in monetary terms. Unfortunately, the hand shower is not a standard fitting in most of the Indian homes (how the hell can I expect it in Madras, where people have a water room, to accomodate buckets holding reserves of metro-water). Even the hyped up ultra modern apartments mushrooming all over Bengaluru and other cities are no exception.

The economy of water usage using the above listed methods depends on two factors,

1. The ability to control the amount of water that is dispensed
2. The ability to direct water at the right places

Using the mug one can direct water where-ever needed, but you do not have a lot of control over the amount of water that is dispensed. With the over-head shower, the amount of water that comes out can be controlled with the tap knob. But one would have to move oneself around to get the direction right. The hand shower gets both the factors right. You can control the amount of water that comes out and can direct water at any part of the body without the user having to move around.

Though I do not have precise numbers/experiments to show that the third method consumes the least volume of water, crude estimates do indicate benefits of using a hand shower. With my hand shower it takes about 10 seconds to fill a mug of water. It takes about 20 seconds to get my body wet before applying soap. That is about 2 mugs of water. If I had used the bucket-mug combo, I would have needed atleast 4 mugs of water to get myself wet. To wash off all the soap thoroughly, I would need about 30 - 40 seconds of hand showering. That is about 4 mugs of water as against a minimum of 5-6 mugs of water of the bucket-mug combo method. We almost have savings of about 50% with the hand shower over the bucket-mug combo. Not bad at all. The hand shower has an added advantage during a cold water bath. With the bucket-mug combo, one would need some extra mugs of water to get adjusted to the water temperature. So folks get yourself a hand shower and save some serious water.

Unfortunately, this is the most un-sexy bathing post that one can hope to see.