Three Lions Shower

It’s coming foam: Shower to ‘Three Lions’ this World Cup to cut water bills in half!

Did you know that getting into the World Cup spirit can actually halve your water bills? 

With summer being the peak season for showers[1], bills can quickly rise - an even bigger hit to our wallets if we’ve been watching the match at the pub the night before.

That’s why we’ve invented “Three Lions Showers”: an equally patriotic and thrifty way to keep your shower (and your bills) from going into extra time.

The UK could save £650 million this World Cup thanks to ‘Three Lions showers’

The average UK shower lasts around eight minutes[2], yet WWF guidance recommends four-minute showers to reduce water consumption[3]. That’s a difference of around 60 vs 30 litres of water.

Not only are there environmental benefits, but our calculations estimate that switching to a four-minute shower could save around 30p per wash - a small amount individually, but one that adds up over the course of a summer of games, pub trips, and (hopefully) plenty of England wins to celebrate.

And the easiest way to time it? Press play on Three Lions by Baddiel & Skinner & The Lightning Seeds. The ‘98 version lasts almost four minutes, making it the perfect unofficial “extra-time timer” for your shower routine.

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It may not sound too substantial, but this equates to about £23 over the month-long tournament, and £276 if you commit to four-minute showers for the full year! Three Lions Shower on Christmas Day? Yes please.

And if the country joins forces, the UK could save £650 million during the World Cup season alone.

Rather than watching the clock, simply press play when you step into the shower and aim to finish before the final chorus. It’s a simple way to time yourself, get into the England spirit, and potentially cut both water and energy use, all while turning a daily routine into something a little more fun (and a lot more patriotic).

Sources:

[1] South West Water Supply

[2] UKERC

[3] WWF

Methodology:
Based on our own research, the average UK shower lasts about 8 minutes and uses around 60 litres of water, equating to roughly 7.5 litres per minute.

To save money and water usage, the WWF recommends having showers last 4 minutes, which would reduce usage to about 30 litres per shower. Therefore, reducing a shower from 8 minutes to 4 minutes saves about 30 litres each time.

In the UK, water and wastewater typically cost about £4–£6 per 1,000 litres, based on average Ofwat-regulated tariffs. That means saving 30 litres saves roughly 12–18p on water per shower.

Heating 30 litres of water takes about 1 kWh of energy, and UK energy costs mean this is worth roughly 8–13p per shower (Ofgem price cap guidance).

So overall, cutting a shower from 8 minutes to 4 minutes saves approximately 20–30p per shower. For an average UK household (rounded up to 2.5 people showering daily), that adds up to roughly: £15–£23 per month.

Scaling this across all 28.5 million households in the UK, the national saving could reach approximately £650 million over the month-long World Cup period.