Is Saving Water Worth the Effort?
The availability of water is becoming a major issue throughout the United States, especially in the dry western states where some of the disputes over water resources have become truly acrimonious. The amount you spend on water is largely related to your geographic location and there is a wide divergence of cost. For example, in Chicago the average annual expense for water services in 2008 was $ 228, whereas in Atlanta it was $ 1,476. Furthermore, the recent trend of privatizing water resources has led to a price increase in a lot of markets. All this means is that it’s in your best interest to lower water consumption. This can be done by using less water, but there are some home improvements that you can do that will make your home more water efficient without changing many of your habits.
Installing Dual-Flush Technology
Dual-flush technology gives a toilet two different flushing options; a light flush for liquid waste and a heavy flush for solid waste. Using a lighter flush when appropriate can save up to 3,300 gallons of water annually. This is already the standard in Europe and has been for decades, but it was exotic and expensive for the United States until just recently. Though buying a Euro-style dual flush system will cost about $ 300 in many stores, there are some conversion kits that will install the same technology in your present system for about $ 30. One of the first to offer these conversion kits was SelectAFlush (dualflushkit.com), though there are a number of similar products available today.
Switching to a Tankless Water Heater
This is another standard in Europe that has been popular there since the 1960s but is just now making significant inroads in the United States. Tankless water heaters don’t involve massive tanks that sit there and constantly use energy, but activate when you turn on the hot water and superheat the water as long as you’re using it. Not only are tankless water heaters more efficient in respect to water, they also save money on your heating bill (electrical, gas, or whatever your current hot water heater uses). Tankless heaters can be small, wall mounted units right next to the shower (extremely popular in Ireland and other European nations) to large units that heat water for all showers and sinks concurrently. Although older models were much weaker and did not perform as well as tank water heaters, the technology has come a long way and many tankless water heaters work extremely well today.
Install Faucet Aerators
A faucet aerator screws on to your faucet and mixes air into the water flow. This will reduce the amount of water used significantly, but will also keep water pressure the same. If you have newer faucets, there are probably aerators already installed, but if this is not the case they usually cost between $ 5 and $ 10 apiece and can be easily installed on most faucets in your home. The primary benefit is that aerators reduce the gallons per minute flow rate by almost half without sacrificing water pressure. You can also install aerators on your shower heads, though in this case the additional air means the water cools much faster, so a non-aerating low flow shower head might be more desirable.
Check For and Fix Leaks
According to the National Sanitation Foundation, a leaky faucet can waste as much as a thousand gallons of water per year and a toilet leak can waste as much as 500 gallons of water per day. Faucet leaks are usually fairly obvious, so if you have any you should consider fixing them. Toilet leaks aren’t as obvious, so consider dropping in a tablet of dye to the tank, and let it sit for a while without flushing. If dyed water gets in the tank, you have a leak that needs to be fixed right away. Some repairs, like a faucet leak are really simple and just about anyone should be able to do it, but a toilet leak might require the help of a professional.
