Houses Install ‘Green’ Showers | Showering Enthusiast

Harvard Crimson:

Harvard is installing new water-saving showerheads in undergraduate dorms. But for some students, they’re only producing a shower of complaints.

Harvard Yard Operations installed new showerheads in Greenough, Hurlbut, and Pennypacker Halls at the beginning of this month. They were also installed in Dunster, Leverett, and Mather Houses this summer, and are in the process of being added to the remaining dorms.

The new showerheads, manufactured by Indianapolis, Ind.-based Delta Faucet Company, use 1.6 gallons of water per minute instead of the 2.5 gallons expended by standard showerheads, according to Paul J. Hegarty, the building manager of Leverett House.

The company touts on its Web site that its product provides a shower that “actually feels like 2.5 gallons per minute.”

Harvard Yard Operations expects that replacing the showerheads in the freshman dorms alone will save nearly 2.5 million gallons of water and $40,000 annually.