Japanese Government: speed up your showers and baths!
A new Japanese government report is urging families to cut down on energy consumption by speeding things up when bathing:
Families should not only shorten their daily showers by a minute — a common recommendation in the West — but should try to take baths in quick succession, the report said.
Japanese usually wash outside the tub and then soak in hot water, which is then reused by the next family member. That means the water must be reheated each time if the next person in line dawdles.
Hot water use in bathrooms and kitchens accounted for 39 percent of energy consumed in Japanese homes, a stark contrast to European households, where energy is mainly used for air-conditioning and heating, the report said.
Japan is one of the world’s most energy-efficient countries, but greenhouse gas emissions from companies and households have been on the rise in recent years, prompting the government to raise public awareness for global warming.
[hat tip to Brian]
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so, does this mean I can get some kind of grant to install Low-E UPVC windows and high quality insulation in our new house which we are about to start to build in the next few months or so. I doubt it……
HAHA insulation in a japanese home!
This report did not include all those little kerosene heaters that most japanese run 24/7 from november until april or the fact that many homes still use kerosene to heat their bath water.
If they properly insulated and sealed their houses they would no longer need all those cute little heaters, electric rugs, electric blankets, or an air conditioner in every room. The huge conglomerate companies would have a shit fit over the huge loss of business and they would probably get destroyed by western companies who offer better products (central air, heat pumps, etc..). Not to mention that thousands of people would possibly gas them selves to death with those little heaters.
i don’t think high insulation works in japan … it’s way too humid …. inside of an apartment will get fungused quickly.
There are places with high humidity in the US and the insulation still works fine.
oh really? I was told in the US things are so the best … heheh … but seriously… one can fights humidity with air condition but it’s also energy wasteful, unhealthy /allergies etc/ and annoying /like big stores during summer in Japan/ …
Stand-alone dehumidifiers could also work, and use less energy than air conditioning.
Many people in America do waste a lot of energy by running their air conditioning all the time in summer, but houses with good insulation tend to remain cool inside and cut down on AC power usage.
Bathrooms and kitchens use 39%?
Though I could be wrong, I thought the instant gas heaters were quite efficient at using energy for heating water. Better than the water heater constantly draining energy to keep the huge tank of water hot, I thought.
But if there’s room for improvement, no reason to complain I guess.
I personally am not affected by this, since I don’t use the tub (too much of a hassle), and I’m pushing my shower time to the limits since I’d rather sleep in every morning that use it for bathing…
It may seem high but it’s true. Hot water is a huge chunk of the energy bill because of the relatively large amount of energy needed to heat water, add in the Japanese need to fill an entire bathtub with extra-hot water, but also the (seems crazy to me) practice of showering and washing BEFORE going into the tub. It’s extremely wasteful if the pre-wash is done with a showerhead running all the time (just using the wash basin and a tap like the old people do at the sento is not so bad) And the waste is even worse if it’s only ONE person using the bath.
If they really want to cut down the energy, it would be very simple, abandon the silly tradition of washing yourself perfectly clean before you even get in the tub, at least in private homes.
Anotehr simple way, many homes in Japan could easily provide ALL that hot water for free on sunny days with mini-solar hot water heaters on balconies that would at least work great in the summer.