This is a KISS workaround, and tries social solutions to the social problem. You may have already tried some or all of these, with no or little success, in which case, go for the tech solution if all else fails, LOL.
Presuming that you
1. already have a reduced flow shower head of some sort, and
2. that you don't have an instant gas HWS, which requires an amount of water to activate water heating such that people are finding that they have to remove the much vaunted and handed-out free flow restrictors in order to get enough water through the appliance to heat it,
then you could try actually turning the tap at the water meter down a bit!
My brother has 2 teenagers, [time in the shower? - what's the problem with 20 minutes? I have to wash/colour/condition my hair etc, etc - you all know the story,] and other families they know in similar situations, have discovered that turning down the tap at the meter, [which you do when the kids aren't there, and don't let them know, and do it in small stages, over a few days, so they don't suddenly wonder what's happened..] is having a salutary effect!!
Specially on the kids who want not only the 20 minute shower, but with full-on water pressure, gallons per second stuff.
Good things - even longer showers use less water; when the water pressure decreases a bit, they're not so inclined to stay there for days, so showers tend to get shorter anyway; other water uses decrease too, especially such things as turning on tap full bore to fill a drinking glass or bottle, and have water spray all over kitchen etc - lower pressure means more efficient, if slightly longer, receptacle filling etc
Bad things - washing machine and dishwasher may take a bit longer to fill - you just have to develop a bit of patience, and factor in the extra time for the 20 loads of washing at weekends. In Melbourne, we basically can't use water outside anyway, so not much problem there!
Result - brother and several families have discovered that their water consumption has decreased between "a bit" and "considerably" since they have done this quick, easy, reversible, work-around.
If you have persons with lots of hair who insist on standing under the shower for 10 minutes while their conditioner works, or some other crazy activity, then you need to get someone (female?) old enough to remember how to wash and condition hair in the bathroom basin or laundry trough or kitchen sink, as a quite separate activity from showering! Anyone over 55 or 60, or who was brought up on a farm/house with tank water, should have few clues.
This is a very low tech workaround for the problem - all you need to do is have patience, and remember that the job of the parents of teenagers is to be wrong, and that teenagers are rebellious, which is part of the growing up process whereby they are supposed to learn about how far they can push things. If you are pushing a seriously green line at home, don't be surprised if the teenagers rebel and decide they want to work as marketing consultants for the coal industry .... With any luck, the work you did when they were small kids WILL eventually come good, and by the time they're in their 20s, they will have started to turn into sentient beings, with values in the same ball park as yours.
In the meantime, turn down the tap at the water meter, and also make yourself REALLY unpopular by knocking on the bathroom door or similar, when you have heard the water running for too long. Protests should be met with quiet statements about people who wish to be treated as adults need to start behaving like adults. No more than that, no lecture, no arguments, just a short bald statement of the fact!
If the kids have a scientific bent, you can do stuff like measure water flow into a bucket, and work out how many litres a shower of XX minutes consumes. Get out the water bill, and have THEM calculate the cost of the water in excess of the 4 minutes allowed. Work out the number of showers in a water bill period, and then suggest that they either pay for the extra water when the water bill arrives, or give them some foul chore, at a value of say $8 - $10/hour (explain that this is an all-in cash rate - it is lower than working at local shop because it includes no tax, super, other on-costs etc), and since their long showers cost YY dollars a quarter, then they need to work that amount of money off by doing things you might otherwise have to pay for, like cleaning out guttering, painting the fence or baseboards, cutting the grass if you have any which grows, NOT the normal chores, something extra!
Just get a bit creative and try to change the behaviour or get them to pay for the consequences, rather than use a blunt instrument or technological approach!
Happy daze ...
Posted Friday 20 Nov 2009 @ 2:32:03 am from IP
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