How to Conserve Water This Summer

Summer is currently in full swing! And, summer is a great time to start thinking about conserving water (especially in California). With record droughts and dry spells, the state has seen a major uptick in the number of wildfires we experience every year. While there isn’t much that we can all do as individuals to prevent these fires, we can at least all do our part to conserve water across the state. The plumbers here at Scott English Plumbing, Inc. would like to talk about a few of the easy ways you can make a significant impact on the amount of water you consume during the summer:

Step 1 – Water Your Lawn and/or Garden in the Morning or at Night

Water evaporates faster when the sun is out. Simply moving the time of the day that you water your lawn/garden to the morning and/or evenings can really contribute towards conserving water during the summer. Watering during the morning or at night allows the water to seep into the ground where it can continue to provide your plants with something to drink. Also, make sure you’re watering only plants and not the sidewalk, your driveway, or groundcover.

Step 2 – Swap Out Your Water Hogging Plants for Drought Resistant Varieties

California residents have a strange affinity for lawns and water-wasting foliage. While no one can tell you what kinds of plants you should or shouldn’t keep, simply swapping out some of your flora with drought-resistant varieties can make a large impact on your water usage. Remember, wildfires affect us all. We should all do our part to make sure we don’t make things worse by selfishly holding on to our lawns and water-hogging plants. By swapping out your water-hogging plants you can help make a difference while simultaneously upgrading your yard!

Step 3 – Do the Toilet Leak Test

You may be surprised to find out that a leaking toilet can waste hundreds of gallons of water a year. And, you may also be surprised to find out that it is an extremely common problem with all makes and models of toilets. To check your toilets for leaks, simply take the cover off of the tank in the back and add a few drops of your favorite color of food coloring (yellow probably isn’t the best choice here). Then, let your toilet sit for a few hours without flushing it. If you find some of the food coloring in the toilet bowl, then your toilet is leaking and is consequently wasting water. If you find that your toilet is leaking, just call the experts here at Scott English Plumbing, Inc. and we’ll get right out and sort it out for you.

(Information found at ConserveH20.org)

Step 4 – Take Shorter Showers

Here is a shocking and surprising statistic: Reducing the amount of time you take showers for by as little as 2 minutes can save a whopping 1750 gallons of water, per person, every year! So, one of the easiest things you can do to help conserve water this summer is to simply reduce the amount of time you spend in the shower by as little as 2 minutes.

If you’d like to save even more water with your showering routine, then you can have Scott English Plumbing, Inc. come out and install a low-flow shower head in your shower. These shower heads use around 0.5 gallons per minute fewer than regular shower heads (regular shower heads use around 2.5 gallons per minute, low-flows use around 2.0 gallons per minute). So, by switching to a low flow showerhead can save another 1825 gallons per year per person!

(Information found at Waterpik)

Step 5 – Use Your Dishwasher

This one is a little counterintuitive. Most people assume that washing your dishes by hand is a more economical way to do the dishes. However, washing dishes by hand can use upwards of 27 gallons of water per dishwasher sized-load of dishes washed, whereas a dishwasher only uses around 3 gallons (for Energy-Star rated dishwashers). If you will spend more than 2 minutes washing whatever dishes you’re doing by hand, then it will save more water to just put those dirty plates in your dishwasher. Sometimes, saving water also saves you from having to do more work!

(Information found at NPR)

Step 6 – Use an Automatic Car Wash

Washing your car by hand can waste tons of water. Simply paying a little bit of money for an automatic car wash at your local gas station can go quite a long ways towards helping you conserve water. Washing your car by hand can waste upwards of 100 gallons of water while using the automatic car wash can use fewer than 20 gallons to achieve similar (if not better) results. So, do your part and skip hand-washing your car this summer and just take it down to your local automatic car wash!

(Information found at LA Times)