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From what I found on the Internet, a brief shower is more water efficient than a bath. I was wondering if there is any research about water use with more than one person using a shower? My gut feeling is that two people showering uses around 150% of a one person shower.

Notoriety is established with the the following catch phrase Have a shower with your fella, Stella which was part of Australian government TV campaign during water restrictions a few years back. The implication is that two-person showering saves water.

Australian campaign cited here

Everyday we are encouraged to stop wasting water, from the catchy jingle produced by the campaign group Waterwise with the memorable line ‘Have a shower with your fella stella,’

And here

Humorous advice on water saving strategies, such as in the Australian advertisement with the tagline "Take a shower with your fella, Stella," may soon become legal directives.'

From another page not based on the australian campaign

  • share a shower with your partner, since it will usually use less water than two separate showers
Wertilq
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Diederik
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    Is anyone making this claim? We only answer questions based on notable claims. – Sklivvz Jan 23 '12 at 17:43
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    This was a question in the Children's edition of Trivial Pursuit. I found this memorable and irritating because the answer is subjective. Some people shower longer than others. – Brian M. Hunt Jan 23 '12 at 20:15
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    There can be other benefits to sharing a shower than just using less water. Just saying :-) – Zano Jan 24 '12 at 12:06
  • http://www.gogreenzine.com/shower-timer/ is an environmental website claiming that sharing a shower saves water. – Andrew Grimm Sep 03 '12 at 13:30
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    I have heard the phrase *"Save water: shower with a friend."* batted around from time to time, but it is always clear that the speaker is thinking along the same lines as @Zano... – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Sep 06 '12 at 14:58
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    Seems to me that a wet naked couple, literally so close that they couldn't avoid rubbing up against each other even if they wanted to, would make a shower take a good half hour, at least... :) In any case, it'd probably take longer than both people put together would spend individually. – cHao May 14 '14 at 21:14
  • @dmckee, I've seen that phrase on a bumper sticker, years ago. I just Googled for an image, but all the results were either exceptionally plain, or bordering on the explicit (in the sense that Zano refers to). – Brian S May 15 '14 at 18:27
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    My personal experience is that the major benefit (other than closeness to the person you're showering with) is that taking turns effectively gives you the savings of turning off the water while applying soap or shampoo without adding the need to run the water for a while to get the temperature back up. – Sean Duggan Jun 03 '14 at 11:48
  • @BrianM.Hunt - That doesn't make the claim subjective, it just means that part of the answer relies on a random variables (the amount of water used in a shower or bath are not subjective, just random). An objective answer could be constructed on averages, or even better - distributions of water usage. – indigochild Jan 26 '16 at 03:57

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