Evolve Ladybug autoshutoff device
We just bought a new showerhead attachment. DH had installed a low flow shower head with an option to shut it off a year ago or so. I must confess, I rarely use the shut off feature. I luxuriate under hot water, especially in the cold winter months early in the morning before coffee. I’m trying to do better, but it is a mental struggle of my will power and my selfishness.
The real point of this blog is the attachment we added. It’s an Evolve Ladybug. This little device works by sensing when the water reaches 95°F (35 °C). At that point it shuts the water down to a trickle. The trickle keeps the hot water in the pipe and the shower head, but lowers the water and energy usage to nearly zero. I like a really hot shower (bad for my skin, but that’s me) so 95° is a little cool, but it warms the rest of the way VERY quickly.
What does this save you in real dollars and how long until you recoup the investment? Well, the company advertises that it saves $75 in energy costs and 2700 gallons per year. This assumes a standard 2.5 gallon per minute (gpm) showerhead and 1 minute of water running for three showers a day. Based on water, sewer and electricity rates for my area (water and sewer combined are about $3.75/1000 gallons and electricity is about $0.06/kwh), I calculate a per shower savings of about $0.10 per shower for a standard shower head. If you’ve installed a low flow shower, it will be about ½ that. The total cost at the time we purchased the device was $38.23 including shipping. My DH installed it in about 10 minutes, so no installation fee. Since we already have a low flow shower head, we will save about a nickel with each shower. That means it will take 765 showers to recoup our investment. With two people using that shower pretty much every day, it will be a year before we recover our investment.
Still the device comes with a three year warranty. Assuming it lasts that long, we will save about $80 over the life of the warranty. Based on the cost, though, we will NOT be installing this device on any other shower heads in our house. The rest of them get only occasional use from visiting guests. Usage is far too low to warrant the change over.