Water Savings

Those of you on metered water, you know this is just one more bill that can add up quickly. Older toilets are one of the worst water wasters in American homes today. Many use a whopping 3.5 gallons per flush.

What if you have an older toilet that's working fine and you don't want to go to the expense of replacng right now. A very low cost solution is to put a brick, or two, in your toilet's water holding tank. The brick reduces the amount of water needed to fill the tank. Be sure to position the brick so it does not interfere with the flapper valve or float.

When you do go to upgrade your bathroom fixtures, chose low flush toilets, and water saving shower heads and faucets and be sure to look for the Water Sense label. It's the EPA's new water use rating system and is similar to the Energy Star rating given to electric appliances. Many people have the misconception that by using a water saving shower head, they'll have reduced water pressure. This simply isn't true. By introducing air into the water stream the pressure is actually increased. If you haven't looked at the wide variety of water saving shower heads available today, you should take another look. They are not the no-frills, utilitarian ones of the 1980s. One 10-minute shower per day with a water saving shower head can mean saving 10,000 gallons of water a year.

Using a rainwater capture system can greatly reduce the amount of water needed from your home water source for watering your lawn, garden or landscaping. Simple rainwater capture systems consist of a barrel at the bottom of your homes down spout. Some have spigots near the bottom of the barrel to attach a regular garden hose or drip irrigation hose. More complex rainwater capture systems can be connected to automatic sprinkler systems or even piped into the house for flushing toilets. Using plants that are native to the area is also a good way to decrease water use. Since they are accustomed to regional climate changes, they require little or no watering between rainfalls.