Save Money on Water Usage by Applying New Technology
Where Does Your Water Go?
How can you save money from your home plumbing if you don’t know where you are wasting water? In most average homes, the bathroom is the one place where more water is being used every day. More importantly, there are two components of your home plumbing that use water more than anything else and knowing this can help you create some savings.
Toilets
On the average, toilets attribute to about 27% of the water usage from your entire home, not just the bathroom. If you are using an old model toilet you can be wasting at least 23,000 gallons of water every year. This is because old toilet models can use as much as 7 gallons of water with every flush. It has been established in various studies that these old model toilets are one of the biggest sources of wasted water in many homes.
Now that you know where 27% of your water consumption is going, how do you save from it? One of the easiest ways is to trade in that old toilet model with a more water-efficient one with better flushing action. This of course would not be cheap because it can set you back anywhere from $200 to $300. But, in the long run, with its better engineered trapways and bowls, you gain a lot of savings with every flush using as little as 1.6 gallons to as much as 3.5 gallons of water per flush.
That is just the tip of the iceberg because higher efficient toilets are now in the market. What makes these models better? They are capable of powerful flushing action using only as little as 0.8 gallons of water to as much as 1.6 gallons of water with every flush. This means additional savings of 6,000 gallons of water yearly.
Showers
In your bathroom, the next biggest use of water would have to be the shower, unless of course you shower only when the season changes. In average homes water usage from showers is about 17%. The great thing about understanding water usage from your showers is that creating savings from it can also help you save hot water usage.
Investing anything from $20 to $100 you can lower water usage from your shower as well as the hot water usage in your home. What is the relationship? As much as 70% of the water that goes through your showerheads is passed on from your water heater. So it follows that through the reduction of water consumption, water heating is lowered as well.
How can you generate savings of as much as 7,800 gallons of water annually and anything from $38 to $90 savings in your water heating bill? The quick and easy answer is to replace your showerheads with a more efficient one. This means lowering water usage without affecting the pressure of the water that comes from the nozzles. Newer models can even change the velocity and the shape of the water stream including the size of the drops. All of these for just 1.6 gallons of water used per minute.
Going for savings
Now that you know where your water goes, you also know where your money flows. So by turning down the tap a bit, you can do some savings without affecting your living habits. The great news is that with the help of technology, what was difficult to do about 30 to 40 years ago is possible today; which is to lower water usage and billing without affecting the quality of water pressure. Aside from this, you can also give your bathroom a bit of a face lift.
To make sure that you get all these savings, consult a licensed professional plumbing service so that you never go wrong.