This calculator allows you to select from your individual water utility provider. The tool then imports the volumetric water and sewer fees and calculates the money you could save by installing a more efficient showerhead or toilet.
For every drop of water used in the home, there is a water and sewer fee associated with the water used. Those fees are highly variable from community to community. This calculator allows the user to select their water utility from over 400 water providers in Wisconsin to calculate cost of showering and toilet flushing. It also estimates energy associated with hot water for showering by using median gas/electric costs from providers throughout the state. It simply determines the volume of water used by asking some simple questions (such as number of people in the household, flow rate, shower length, etc.). Once the volumetric water use is determined the water/sewer rates can be applied to determine actual costs for these activities. Here is some estimates of how much you could save:
The following activity is a unit conversion activity designed for MS/HS students to determine how much it costs for them to take a shower in the morning and how much they could save over the course of the year by installing a more efficient showerhead. It uses the same calculations as are in the calculator above.