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 largely depends on where you live, and there’s a wide array of cost. For example, in Chicago the average annual expense for water services in 2008 was $ 228, whereas in Atlanta it was $ 1,476. Further, the recent trend of privatizing water resources has also led to price increases in many markets. All this means is that it’s in your best interest to lower water consumption. Though this can be done by simply using less water, there are also a number of home improvements that can be made that can make your home more water efficient without necessarily 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 has been the standard in Europe for decades, but was largely an exotic – and expensive – add on feature in the United States until 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 such kits like SelectAFluch (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 do tankless water heaters work far more efficiently in terms of water, they’re also cheaper to heat (electric, gas, whatever you happen to be using. 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 allows the water pressure to remain the same while significantly reducing the amount of actual water used. 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 install aerators on shower heads, though this means that water cools a lot faster so an aerator on a shower head might not be a great idea.

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 are not as obvious, so consider adding a dye tablet to the toilet 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 repair jobs, such as fixing a faucet leak are easy enough that most handy people can do the job themselves, while a toilet leak may require the assistance of a professional.

Tags: Home Improvements, save water tips, water bill, water system