long shower at the end of the day might be a relaxing escape from reality, but there is a reason to stay alert.Pears, a senior industry fellow at RMIT who helped develop Australia’s appliance energy star ratings, describes showers as “almost perfectly designed to waste energy and make you feel uncomfortable”.
Tim Forcey, an energy efficiency adviser and author, says “there’s nothing less comfortable than having to have a shower in a big open space on a cold winter morning”. The solution, he says, is to better contain heat in shower cubicles. Showerdome converts are effusive in their praise, but some users say the devices make their bathroom “feel like a sauna”.
According to Pears, problems relating to excess moisture, such as the growth of mould and mildew, have escalated over the last 20 years due to houses being less “leaky”. In the process of attempting to solve problems, some solutions have created some of their own. Prompted by the need to reduce water use during droughts, the mandatory shift to energy-efficient shower heads has incidentally led people to increase their energy consumption.