Washington Post: Have Cold Showers to Prevent Climate Change
13 hours ago Eric Worrall 40 Comments
Essay by Eric Worrall
Clearly we haven’t plumbed the bottom of the well of climate absurdity.
Why you should embrace using cold water, almost all the time
Heating water gobbles energy, leading to higher utility bills and more planet-warming emissions.
By Allyson Chiu
May 12, 2024 at 6:30 a.m. EDT
You may not be giving a second thought to setting your washing machine on the hot cycle, cranking your showers to a steamy temperature or scrubbing your dirty dishes under a stream of scalding water.
If you did, you’d find that you probably don’t need to use so much hot water — and that you could be saving energy and cutting your utility bills. Water heating is responsible for more than 10 percent of both annual residential energy use and consumer utility costs, the biggest share after air conditioning and heating, according to the Energy Department. An American household uses an average of 64 gallons of hot water a day — close to the amount needed to fill an average bathtub— by doing laundry, showering, washing the dishes and running kitchen and bathroom faucets.
While there are home improvements that can help you cut back on the energy it takes to heat water, including installing a heat pump water heater, one easy solution is to switch to cold water.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/14/washington-post-have-cold-showers-to-prevent-climate-change/