N.C. State is continuing to lead UNC-Chapel Hill in the Water Conservation Challenge, but Charlie Childers, a junior in biological sciences, said conserving can be difficult.

With low-flow faucet aerators installed on sinks across campus, he said students have complained about the wait for hot water.

“When I’m washing my face, I’m torn between waiting for the water to get hot and conserving it,” he said. “Usually I just wash with cold water.”

According to the most recent statistics from Facilities, the average NCSU student is using 27 gallons of water per day, while the average UNC-CH student uses 30.

But Bobby Mills, student body president and junior in economics and political science, said the competition winner will be based on whoever has the most of three possible points. These are for the highest gross reduction, the highest percentage reduction and the third is the lowest average gallon amount overall, he said.

“There’s a possibility [we] could tie, but the probability of that is very unlikely,” he said. “I think we’ll continue on with the surge.”

Reduction values are based on the difference between an initial baseline number for both schools and its final average consumption, Mills said.

The baseline for NCSU is 31 gallons, compared to UNC-CH’s 34 gallons, and so far NCSU has had an average 13 percent of reduction while UNC-CH has had 12 percent.

The challenge’s winner will be announced at the ACC Tournament in March, Mills said, but there will be an update given at the home basketball game against UNC-CH — the same day the challenge ends.

Richard Wood, a sophomore in aerospace engineering and maintenance employee for University Housing, said he helped install some of the 2,000 faucet aerators that may have helped conserve, and that low-flow showerheads will come next.

The new faucet aerators release a half gallon of water per minute, compared to the previous two gallons per minute, he said. And while the new showerheads have not been ordered yet, he said they will put out half the amount of water currently expelled in showers.

Childers said he isn’t waiting for new showerheads to start conserving.

“I turn the showerhead off when I’m lathering,” he said.

For Wood, the drought is the ultimate motivation to use less water, and he hasn’t washed his car since summer.

But Childers said the challenge is a helpful reminder.

“It took a while for me to be thinking about it when I turn on the water,” he said. “But because of the advertising and because of the drought, now I am thinking about conserving water.”

And, according to Wood, students can help use even less water by reporting leaky faucets to Facilities because they are easy to fix.