14 DAY TRIAL // Even greenheads who spend loads of time thinking about ways to promote sustainability and reducing their ecological footprint can sometimes slip up.
Especially when they've had a particularly tough day and the only thing on their minds is taking a long and relaxing shower.
On such occasions, it can happen that they use more water and electricity than they would actually need to clean themselves.
The Uji shower head, which was invented by Tufts graduate students Brett Andler, Sam Woof and Tyler Wilson, is intended to help people improve on their ecological footprint by telling them when they're spending too much time in the bathroom.
Thus, the LEDS lights this shower head is fitted with stay green for about 7 minutes, which should be more than enough for the average Joe and Jane to clean themselves and even rinse off.
After 7 minutes, they turn red, thus alerting people that they are using a tad more water and electricity than a simple shower requires.
“It encourages [people] to take shorter and more energy efficient showers. By letting people become aware of how long they’re in the shower, we’ve actually been able to cut shower time by 12 percent,” inventor Brett Andler told the press, as cited by Inhabitat.
The Uji shower head is expected to become available for purchase as early as 2014. Its creators believe it will sell for about $50 a piece (€37.34).