FINAL Survey Results!

Today, our post will be discussing, interpreting and analyzing the results of our largest sample yet- 250 people! Basically, we asked the same questions as last time on our survey:

1. How many showers do you take per day?
2. On average, how long are your showers?
3. How many baths do you take per day?
4. How many times do you do the laundry per week?
5. How long do you leave the washing machine running for?
6. Do you leave the water running when you brush your teeth or shave?
7. How many times do you run the dishwasher per week?
8. Do you hose your driveway down when it is dirty?
9. How many times per week do you hand wash the dishes?
10. Would you be willing to change your habits in order to reduce the amount of water you consume?

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Essentially, many of the answers we received were expected. However, since there wasn't really a large   differentiation between good or bad habits for some answers, we will not be focusing on them. For example, 46% of the survey respondents hose their driveway down when it is dirty and 54% uses other means to clean it. These responses were rather close. That being said, we will only be discussing the significant results with regards to bad habits (where the majority of respondents have bad or good habits with regards to their water consumption). This is because we are focusing on how to use water wisely- So we will be focusing on bad cases of habits as we want to help change whatever bad habits people may have (And we also do not want to bore you with 10 graphs!).

Bad Habits

With regards to bad habits, we could definitely conclude that most respondents have very bad habits in relation with their water consumption! Here are a couple of the significant differences that we noticed from the results of the survey:

How long are your showers?

Oh no! We must say, 11-20 minutes is WAY too long for a shower! Considering that normal fixtures are used, we consume 7 gallons of water for every minute we spend in the shower. If we spend 15 minutes in the shower, that means that we consume approximately 105 gallons of water! By doing this we are wasting our precious resources. Shorten your showers by at a minute or two, and you will be saving about 150 gallons a month. 

Do You Leave the Water Running While You Brush your Teeth or Shave?

No, no, no and NO! This is a giant "no no" when it comes to consuming water. By leaving the water running, you are not only wasting water, but also simply sending it down the drain without even putting it to some sort of use. A tap running at full power uses  a gallon of water in a minute! Imagine how much water you are wasting by leaving it running while you shave.

How Long Do You Leave the Washing Machine On For?

This is a huge factor that contributes to wasting water. Your clothes do not actually need to be soaked in water for more than ten minutes in order to be cleaned. Unless you have dirt and tons of stains on your clothes, you do not need more than ten minutes when it comes to running the washing machine. More than ten minutes is simply put to no good use, except wasting your water.

How Often Do You Hand Wash The Dishes Per Week?

The fact that most people do not even hand wash the dishes once per week is incredibly awful because this means that the dishwasher is being run way too many times per week (77% of our respondents ran their dishwasher more than 3 times a week!). By hand washing dishes you are saving so much water as you are replacing the amount of water that a dishwasher would use with the little amount that will be used when washing by hand. Washing dishes by hand saves so much water and does not even take very long to do. Try assigning roles to each person in your house hold.. One person soaks, the other rinses, and the other one dries the dishes!

Discussion of Results

In all, our results were similar to the first small sample survey on 45 respondents. The average length of someone's shower is 11-20 minutes and most people leave the water on while they are brushing their teeth or shaving. In addition, most people leave the washing machine on for more than 20 minutes. Lastly, most people do not ever hand wash the dishes- Essentially, the small sample was very much similar to the larger sample that we collected, with regards to the questions we decided to post (the rest did not have a very strong relationship between extremely bad habits or good habits, so we left them out). 

Don't Worry, There's Still Hope! 

This study was not done in order to let everyone know that our bad habits are going to lead to our inevitable destruction- that was not our intention at all. We wanted to essentially prove that our habits as life forms on this planet are incredibly destructive-however, there is still time to change them in order to make a difference and lead to a more "green" future.... And it is indeed possible! 94% of our survey respondents said that they would definitely change their habits in order to conserve water in the future... And this, my friends, means that there is still plenty of hope and room for change! 

Thank you to everyone who supported our blog and participated in our survey. Changing your actions now can lead to a better future. Remember, you are not just a drop in the ocean!

For our list on how to save water, click here.