I’ve been meaning to post an update for a while, but just haven’t had the time. There are currently six showers that are used by the campground. Initially, I assumed that these were all 2.5 gpm showerheads as is the current standard. During mornings when the campground is very full, there has been an issue with hot water running out after the first group of showers. This is a ton of water use as the water heater is an 80 gallon commerical propane unit fed by a solar pre-heater system. By installing some lower flow shower heads I thought we could decrease hot water use while allowing everyone to wash off with hot water instead of the initial group.
We purchased three 1.5 gpm water amplifying showerheads manufactured by Delta to replace some of the 2.5 gpm units. I was a bit nervous that these units would not feel like a 2.5 gpm shower; however, I was happily proven wrong. Delta seems to have done a great job with these and they seem to feel about the same as a 2.5 gpm shower. When we started to pull off the old showerheads I noticed that some didn’t have the 2.5 gpm marking on them. Using the bucket and stopwatch method it was determined that they were in fact using between 4 and 5 gpm! No wonder we were running out of hot water so quickly! In turned out that three of the showerheads were these water hogs while three were regular 2.5 gmp units. You can guess which three I replaced.
We now have three 2.5 gpm showers and three 1.5 gpm showers rather than three 2.5 gpm and three 5 gpm! This should decrease hot water use substantially while improving the average shower quality for our guests. Now we just need to pick up three more of the ultra low flow units so all six can use minimal water an energy.