How-To Save Money in Your Home: By Washing Your Hands the Smart Way
Every day I find myself constantly washing my hands. One day, my sister and I conducted a brief experiment, in which she timed me when I washed my hands from the moment the water faucet was turned on, until it was turned off. Keep in mind, the water faucet we have has an average flow rate of around one gallon per minute.
We concluded that the water ran from the faucet for around thirty seconds during the entire time I washed my hands. When I initially wet my hands before applying soap, it would take around five seconds. Then I would lather and scrub my hands with the soap for about twenty seconds. After twenty seconds, I would then rinse the soap off my hands with the running water which would take around five more seconds.
The total run time for the water while washing my hands was thirty seconds. Ten seconds, for the wetting and then rinsing my hands, plus twenty seconds for scrubbing my hands. That is an average of twenty seconds of non-utilized running water, or the same as one third of a gallon of wasted water.
Let’s say I wash my hands six times per day, that is approximately two gallons of water that is not being used, but I am still paying for the water that is being wasted since it is coming out of my water faucet. Presently when I wash my hands, I turn the water off for the twenty seconds it requires me to lather and scrub my hands prior to rinsing, therefore saving a third of a gallon of water during each wash.
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