I don’t like having a bath. I am a shower man. Recently I have been concerned that I my showers are just too good in that they use more water than a bath and so are actually bad.

To test this I put a plug in the bath while I had a shower and tested what is my worst case scenario: relax for a bit; wash face; shampoo and rinse; conditioner; wash body and rinse; and rinse conditioner out. The result is shown in the left image. I lay in it and the water level rose to what I guess is about 80 to 90% of my bath level. I only have a few baths a year, mostly in the winter.

The right image shows the result of what is my ‘wash and go’ shower, as well as markings that roughly indicate (i) the bottom of the bath, (ii) the increase in level to get to my worst case shower, and (iii) the extra bit when I get in the bath.

This is actually a good comparison, of bath and shower, as both use the same heat source: our Gledhill Electramate 2000 off-peak central heating and mains pressure hot water system, an electric storage heater if you will. If you have a power shower then be ashamed! (I’m joking right.) They tend to use water at a faster rate and use on-peak electricity (about 7p a unit as opposed to about 2p a unit). This is complicated by the efficiency of the two systems though: efficiency of the boiler, amount of insulation on the tank and pipe work and so on.