Posted on 07/21/2010 8:44:10 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Gene Goforth sells showerheads—big ones, like the Raindance Imperial 600 AIR. Selling for as much as $5,457, it has a 24-inch spray face, 358 no-clog channels and a triple-massage option. "You can just stand under it, and it helps your psyche," says Mr. Goforth, who has one in his home.
Now, Mr. Goforth is in a lather over the federal government's tough new line on water-hogging showerheads, part of a new effort to enforce energy- and water-use regulations. "Leave my shower alone," Mr. Goforth recently wrote in a letter to the Department of Energy.
Regulators are going after some of the luxury shower fixtures that took off in the housing boom. Many have multiple nozzles, cost thousands of dollars and emit as many as 12 gallons of water a minute. In May, the DOE stunned the plumbing-products industry when it said it would adopt a strict definition of the term "showerhead" in enforcing standards that have been on the books—but largely unenforced—for nearly 20 years.
Industry response has been fast and furious. "It was not the legislative intent of Congress to authorize DOE to regulate the bathing habits of Americans," wrote Frederick Desborough, vice president of California Faucets, a Huntington Beach, Calif., manufacturer, in a letter to the DOE in June.
The showdown is a challenge to President Barack Obama and his energy secretary, Steven Chu, as they try to cajole—or compel—Americans to use water and energy more efficiently. Mr. Chu, a self-described "zealot" for energy efficiency, says he crawls around in his attic in his spare time installing extra insulation.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
DOE defines s**the@d
meanwhile corporations are using millions of gallons to frac a natural gas wells.....
Kyrie eleison! Morons from California or some other place which we’ve overpopulated relative to the water-supply (pretty easy in a coastal desert) who think their local conditions are universal and “saving water” is a public or ecological good writing more regulations.
Having installed one of those and other similar heads, I find it interesting when I have to run extra large water pipes and water sucking fixtures for my liberal, rich, beach living, Southern California customers.
Barbara Streisand's water bill runs about $2,000.00 a month according to a fairly recent book, and I can speak to the joys of being lectured about my greedy, anti-environmental "right wing" politics while standing in the drive way of a $10,000,000.00 home, you would not believe the hypocrisy of these rich liberals.
Maybe DOE should worry about all the sewage Milwaukee is dumping into Lake Michigan.
Selling for as much as $5,457, it has a 24-inch spray face, 358 no-clog channels and a triple-massage option.
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For that kind of money, it better have a triple-happy ending option at the end of the triple-massage option.
OMG my water bill isn’t even 1/2 of that a year!
this administration wouldn’t be happy until all the serfs were bathing in a river and even then they would only allow it on odd number days,
What do you want to make a bet some of those thousand of dollars showerheads are in government peoples’ homes.
Sounds like a really fun guy.
Does she or doesn’t she? Only her plumber (and electrician) know for sure :-)
Once he’s got it packed all the way from ceiling joists to rafters, now what?
“Each multi-head shower fixture uses an extra 40 to 80 thermal units of energy per year, equivalent to 50 gallons of gasoline, or one barrel of oil, he says.”
a WHOLE barrel per year? Wowzers! /mega-sarc.
Now, I actually use very little water when I shower most times. I tend to do what some folks call a “Navy Shower”. I get wet, shut the water off, scrub and shampoo, then rinse. I got into the habit back in college when I lived in an apartment with a very tiny water heater.
That said, it ain’t none of my business how long ya’ll wanna shower or if you want to use more than 2.5 gallons a minute. You pay for your water, you use it as you see fit.
As for the government’s position, well their conservation efforts worked *so* well with those mandated low-flush toilets, didn’t they?
Couldn't they put a meter on the shower that reads the code on your national ID card and regulates how many gallons of water you use per day? We could always buy more water credits with Al Gore green credits.
How about some ‘environmental patriotism”comrades ? We are all in this together. With all those illegals joining us we will have to ration water.
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They charge thousands of dollars for a fixture that maybe cost $50 to make in China. Who’s the bigger sucker. I’d go for a redneck version — after all there is no limit on how MANY showerheads a guy can have in a tub, is there? An octopus fitting might be a suitable dodge.
“Mr. Harris says only manufacturers are subject to the new rules; homeowners aren’t directly affected.”
Not til after the 2012 elections, that is.
Mr. Harris says only manufacturers are subject to the new rules; homeowners aren't directly affected. Companies will have time to adjust product lines, and most consumers won't feel any effect, he says. "Ninety-five percent of us use normal showerheads," he adds.
Sure, "it only affects manufacturers". Check out one reaction to the letters from DOE:
Altmans Products, a U.S. unit of Grupo Helvex of Mexico City, says it got a letter from the DOE in January and has stopped selling several popular models, including the Shower Rose, which delivers 12 gallons of water a minute. Pedro Mier, the firm's vice president, says his customers "just like to feel they're getting a lot of water." Until getting the DOE letter, his firm didn't know U.S. law limited showerhead water usage, Mr. Mier says. "At first, I thought it was a scam."
Mr Mier - it IS a scam!! Class warfare is now the default setting for the Feds.
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