The household appliance that consumes the most energy in the Brazilian home is not the air conditioner, it is located in the smallest room of the house, is used daily, and alone can account for up to 25% of the electricity bill, while an alternative in the same outlet can reduce this cost by up to 75%.

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 20/06/2026 at 16:27

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Electric shower weighs on residential consumption and pressures the network peak; heat pump emerges as an alternative with up to 75% less energy.

The electric shower remains among the largest energy consumption focuses in Brazilian homes. Research published by Unicamp indicates that official estimates for the equipment’s share in residential consumption ranged between 20% and 30%, while the study’s simulations reached about 23%. In the South and Southeast regions, this weight reached 40% of residential consumption during peak hours, between 6 pm and 7 pm.

The impact doesn’t stop at the household bill. According to the same research, the energy consumed by electric showers in the country over a year corresponds to practically 30% of the energy generated by Itaipu in the same period. In this scenario, the heat pump for water heating appears as a more efficient alternative: Energy Star reports that this type of system can deliver the same hot water using 75% less energy than a conventional electric heater.

Electric shower became popular in Brazil, but turned into one of the biggest villains of domestic consumption

The electric shower that spread through Brazilian homes was created by a Brazilian, Francisco Canho, and became popular from the 1930s, when urbanization accelerated and access to the electrical grid helped consolidate this model of instant water heating.

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Bathing in the late afternoon contributes to peak hours and pressures the electrical system

The Unicamp study shows that the electric shower is burdensome not only because it consumes a lot, but because it is used almost simultaneously by millions of people.

Between 6 PM and 7 PM, when the system is already facing strong demand, the equipment accounted for up to 40% of residential electricity consumption in the South and Southeast. Across all households, the research states that half of the consumption during peak hours comes from the electric shower.

Bathing in the late afternoon contributes to peak hours and pressures the electrical system

This data helps explain why the electric shower is treated as a structural problem in the country’s consumption matrix. Unicamp itself emphasizes that if efforts are made to reduce this burden, the gain for the system tends to be significant, as the pressure on transformers, distribution networks, and the load curve itself decreases precisely at the most critical time of the day.

Heat pump heats water with much less electricity than electric resistance

The heat pump operates differently from the resistance shower. According to Energy Star, it works like a kind of reverse refrigerator: instead of removing heat from inside a compartment, it captures heat from the surrounding air and transfers it to the water. Therefore, it can deliver hot water with significantly lower electricity consumption.

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In the technical material from Energy Star, certified heat pump models for water heating use 75% less energy than conventional electric heaters and provide hot water with about one-third of the electricity and one-third of the operational cost of these systems.

The entity also states that for a family of four, the savings can reach about US$ 550 per year on the electricity bill, with a return on the investment difference in around three years in this reference market.

Replacing the shower with more efficient heating can ease the bill and reduce peak pressure

When the weight of the electric shower on the load curve is compared side by side with the efficiency of the heat pump, the potential effect becomes clearer.

If the equipment that most strains the shower during peak hours is replaced by a system that delivers the same function using much less electricity, the tendency is for a simultaneous reduction in individual spending and pressure on the grid during peak demand moments. This conclusion comes from the combination of data from Unicamp and Energy Star.

This does not mean that the change is automatic. The very history of the electric shower helps to understand its permanence: it spread in Brazil because it is simple, cheap, and immediate.

Even so, the advancement of more efficient alternatives places the debate on water heating on another level, because the topic is no longer just about domestic comfort and starts to involve energy efficiency, electricity bill cost, and relief of the electrical system.

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Electric shower weighs on residential consumption and pressures the network peak; heat pump emerges as an alternative with up to 75% less energy.

Electric shower became popular in Brazil, but turned into one of the biggest villains of domestic consumption

Bathing in the late afternoon contributes to peak hours and pressures the electrical system

Heat pump heats water with much less electricity than electric resistance

Replacing the shower with more efficient heating can ease the bill and reduce peak pressure

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Electric shower weighs on residential consumption and pressures the network peak; heat pump emerges as an alternative with up to 75% less energy.

Electric shower became popular in Brazil, but turned into one of the biggest villains of domestic consumption

Bathing in the late afternoon contributes to peak hours and pressures the electrical system

Heat pump heats water with much less electricity than electric resistance

Replacing the shower with more efficient heating can ease the bill and reduce peak pressure

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

Toyota launches “family hybrid van” with 7 or 8 seats, 1.8 hybrid engine, fuel consumption of up to 23.8 km/l, and a price equivalent to about R$ 104,000 without taxes, below the Tiggo 8 Pro Plug-in Hybrid sold in Brazil: meet the Noah Hybrid 2026 in Japan.

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Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

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