Water conservation is not on everyone’s mind, but it probably should be. If your home is connected to city water, your family could be pouring hundreds of dollars a year down the drain. And since much of the country is experiencing chronic water shortages, even if you have a well, it is important to help conserve this precious resource.
Fortunately, there are ways to conserve water in your home, ranging from expensive retrofits to simple changes in your behavior. Master plumber Roger Wakefield explains how to get started…
When it comes to how to save water, locating leaks is your first priority. A dripping sink or tub faucet, a running toilet or a leaking underground pipe can cause your water bill to skyrocket.
If you’re on city water, wait until you’re the only one at home…then check the meter to see if there’s any activity. If the meter is running, there is a leak somewhere. In fact, about nine out of 10 homes have some kind of leak.
The next step is to walk through the house, listening carefully for the sound of dripping or running water. If you are on a well and don’t have a meter, you should do this periodically as well.
If your search turns up nothing even though the meter is running, you may have a leaking pipe beneath the house. In that case, it’s time to call a professional. Look for a plumber who specializes in slab leaks and leak repair.
The shower is by far the “thirstiest” part of the home. The average shower uses 26 gallons of water—multiply that by the number of family members who shower every day. If you’re looking to save water, here’s where you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck…
Take shorter showers. Obviously, this is a simple way to conserve water, but it can be hard to enforce, especially with children.
Don’t run the water while it heats up. That doesn’t mean you should jump under a cold stream. Instead of setting the shower to your preferred temperature and running the water until it hits your sweet spot, immediately turn the water all the way to hot. Once the water is heated up, dial it back to the desired temperature. By doing this, you are not mixing in cold water while you wait—when you set it to your sweet spot first, a quarter of the water you’re running down the drain while you wait is cold…and completely wasted.
There’s an array of water-conserving products to suit every budget.
Flow restrictor: A previous homeowner might have removed the flow restrictor from the showerhead, which means your shower could be putting out nearly five times the amount of water it should. To check for a flow restrictor: Remove the showerhead, and look inside the threaded end for a round plastic piece with tiny holes. If there isn’t one, bring the showerhead to your local big-box store and ask for help.
Low-flow showerhead: Even with a flow restrictor in place, you might have an outdated or inefficient showerhead. Manufacturers produce low-flow showerheads of all types now. Purchase one that puts out 1.5 to 2.5 gallons per minute. Cost: Starting at $20. Note: It is a common misconception that low-flow showerheads mean low water pressure—but modern low-flow showerheads are designed to use less water without sacrificing pressure. They do this by using smaller nozzles and air-infusion technology, which maintains a strong steady stream while using less water. But be sure to purchase a quality showerhead—not a poorly designed one.
Thermostat adaptor: The company Evolve sells a device for less than $30 called the Ladybug thermostatic adaptor, which easily screws in place between the shower arm and the showerhead. It solves the problem of wasting water while you wait for your shower to heat up. With the Ladybug, once the temperature hits 95°F, the shower slows to a trickle, just enough to maintain that temperature. When you’re ready to shower, you step in, pull on a cable…and the shower puts out hot water.
RainStick Shower: If you’re doing a bathroom overhaul or new build, consider investing $5,000 in the shower product RainStick. It collects shower water at your feet and uses a micron screen and high-intensity UV light to clean it in real time and recirculate it through the showerhead. With the RainStick, you can shower for as long as you want, using less than five gallons of water while doubling the water flow.
Hot-water circulation/recirculation pump: For less than $500, you can purchase a house-wide hot-water circulation pump with a comfort system. It keeps hot water circulating and available so that you don’t have to wait for the water to heat up when you turn on a fixture.
If a toilet is 10 or more years old, you’ll almost certainly save water by replacing it with a new one. Virtually all new toilets use a fraction of the water that old models do, while flushing more powerfully.
But there are few budget-friendly ways to cut down on water usage in an older toilet. One of the easiest is to place a full water bottle in the tank—it displaces water so the tank won’t take as much to fill. You can also adjust the fill valve—lowering the float in your tank reduces how much water fills the tank after each flush. Also: Install a dual-flush converter, which lets you choose between a low-volume flush for liquid waste and a full flush for solid waste. These cost about $20 to $40.
When you have enough dishes to fill your dishwasher, it’s usually more water-efficient for you to use the machine than to wash at the sink. As with new toilets, new dishwashers are almost universally more efficient than old ones.
If you have an older washing machine, say 10 to 15 years or older, pay attention to the load size to make sure you’re not using more water than is necessary. Machines built before 2010 typically lack water-saving technology and can use 30 to 40 gallons of water per load, while new high-efficiency models use as little as 15 to 20 gallons per load. Or consider upgrading to a newer machine—they sense the amount of clothing in the tub, using only as much water as required.
Many homeowners remove the aerators from their kitchen and sometimes bathroom sinks to increase water flow. That’s great for filling a teakettle but not great for your water bill. Reinstall the aerators if they’ve been taken out (your big-box hardware store can help).
For shaving, plug the sink and use a shallow basin full of hot water.
Try watering only twice—not three times—a week. Run your sprinkler on a shorter cycle between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am so the water doesn’t evaporate before it saturates the soil. For vegetable gardens: Use a drip irrigation system, which delivers water slowly and directly to the plant roots.
Also: Turn your sprinkler system off completely from November until March. Many water departments set your rate for your sewer bill based on your usage in winter months, usually between November and March. They do this to get a more accurate rate of water going through the sewer system, and that wouldn’t include things like filling swimming pools and watering lawns. By turning off your sprinklers completely in winter, you lower your water usage during the calculation period, and once you turn the sprinkler back on in March, your water usage will be billed at a lower rate.
