Going Green and Saving Money: Water-Saving Purchases You Can Make for the Home
Going green and saving money means creating a greener lifestyle at home.
Saving water in the home is an important part of that greener lifestyle.
If you are prepared to send a little money, saving water at home is actually very easy to do.
Think about your water use at home.
The California Urban Water Conservation Council has estimated that about 60% of home water consumption occurs in one of the smallest rooms in the house: the bathroom.
Flushing toilets, running a bath, taking a shower, washing your hands, or running water in the sink to wash your face or shave are all common activities that occur multiple times per day in the average household, and it is likely that they take place almost entirely in the bathroom.
The kitchen and laundry room are the other rooms in which most water usage occurs.
Washing dishes and clothing, rinsing or washing food to prepare meals, making coffee and tea, or preparing juice or lemonade from concentrate all require water.
These activities are all mandatory in most households, but the amount of water consumed can be controlled, and in almost every case, reduced.
Often we focus on changing habits of water use to realize savings.
Without a doubt, developing a better consciousness about water use will lead to changes in behavior that result in reducing your daily usage of water.
Examples include taking showers rather than baths and making them shorter in duration, turning off the faucet so that water is not running continuously while brushing your teeth or shaving, and running only full loads to clothing or dishes when machine-washing them.
But, sometimes, it pays to spend some money on devices that can aid in saving water.
Here are some examples.
Purchase Water-Saving Toilets Surprisingly, the toilet could be the biggest consumer of water in your home.
Current government mandates are that new toilets use no more than 1.
6 gallons per flush.
If you have older toilets, they may use two or three times that much.
Consider buying a low-flush toilet.
When you do, look for the U.
S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's WaterSense label to be sure it meets of the current low-flush criteria.
Even fancier are the dual flush models that let you select a full flush or half-flush, depending your, ahem, activities in the bathroom.
By replacing 3.
5-gallon per flush toilets with the newer 1.
6-gallon per flush models, the average family of four would save an estimated 14,000 gallons of water per year.
Buy and install faucet and showerhead aerators Faucet aerators can reduce the flow from a typical sink faucet from 2 gallons per minutes to about 1 gallon per minutes.
Similarly, for a showerhead, newer aerators will reduce the flow from 2 to 2.
5 gallons per minute down to1 to 1.
5 gallons per minute.
The amounts add up over the course of a year.
Again looking at the typical family of four, replacing the showerheads could save about 10,000 gallons of water over a year.
Low-flush toilets and low flow aerators for the sinks and shower are investments you can make for your home that will pay themselves back in savings on your water bill as they make your lifestyle greener.
Saving water in the home is an important part of that greener lifestyle.
If you are prepared to send a little money, saving water at home is actually very easy to do.
Think about your water use at home.
The California Urban Water Conservation Council has estimated that about 60% of home water consumption occurs in one of the smallest rooms in the house: the bathroom.
Flushing toilets, running a bath, taking a shower, washing your hands, or running water in the sink to wash your face or shave are all common activities that occur multiple times per day in the average household, and it is likely that they take place almost entirely in the bathroom.
The kitchen and laundry room are the other rooms in which most water usage occurs.
Washing dishes and clothing, rinsing or washing food to prepare meals, making coffee and tea, or preparing juice or lemonade from concentrate all require water.
These activities are all mandatory in most households, but the amount of water consumed can be controlled, and in almost every case, reduced.
Often we focus on changing habits of water use to realize savings.
Without a doubt, developing a better consciousness about water use will lead to changes in behavior that result in reducing your daily usage of water.
Examples include taking showers rather than baths and making them shorter in duration, turning off the faucet so that water is not running continuously while brushing your teeth or shaving, and running only full loads to clothing or dishes when machine-washing them.
But, sometimes, it pays to spend some money on devices that can aid in saving water.
Here are some examples.
Purchase Water-Saving Toilets Surprisingly, the toilet could be the biggest consumer of water in your home.
Current government mandates are that new toilets use no more than 1.
6 gallons per flush.
If you have older toilets, they may use two or three times that much.
Consider buying a low-flush toilet.
When you do, look for the U.
S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 's WaterSense label to be sure it meets of the current low-flush criteria.
Even fancier are the dual flush models that let you select a full flush or half-flush, depending your, ahem, activities in the bathroom.
By replacing 3.
5-gallon per flush toilets with the newer 1.
6-gallon per flush models, the average family of four would save an estimated 14,000 gallons of water per year.
Buy and install faucet and showerhead aerators Faucet aerators can reduce the flow from a typical sink faucet from 2 gallons per minutes to about 1 gallon per minutes.
Similarly, for a showerhead, newer aerators will reduce the flow from 2 to 2.
5 gallons per minute down to1 to 1.
5 gallons per minute.
The amounts add up over the course of a year.
Again looking at the typical family of four, replacing the showerheads could save about 10,000 gallons of water over a year.
Low-flush toilets and low flow aerators for the sinks and shower are investments you can make for your home that will pay themselves back in savings on your water bill as they make your lifestyle greener.
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