Anyone living in Southern California is familiar with drought. In fact, water scarcity is a serious issue in most states west of the Mississippi River. So how can you lower your water bill and conserve water?
Here are 14 simple tips that you can do just in your bathroom and save water each day.
You may have heard about placing a brick in your toilet tank to save water. It works, but there is a better way. Place a few tiny pebbles or a little sand in a water bottle. Fill the bottle with water, recap it and place it in your tank. This simple displacement will save your household an average of 10 gallons of water per day. Bricks are not recommended since they eventually crumble and could damage the working mechanism.
Test toilets for leaks. Add a few drops of food coloring or a dye tablet to the water in the tank, but do not flush the toilet. Watch to see if the coloring appears in the bowl within a few minutes. If it does, the toilet has a silent leak that needs to be repaired.
If doing a remodel, install a new low-volume flush toilet that uses only 1.6 gallons per flush.
Never use the toilet to dispose of cleansing tissues, cigarette butts, or other trash. This wastes a great deal of water and also places an unnecessary load on the sewage treatment plant or septic tank.
Do not let the water run when washing hands. Water should be turned off while washing and scrubbing and be turned on again to rinse. A cutoff valve may be installed on the faucet.
Turn off the water while you brush your teeth. The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of two gallons a minute, according to the EPA’s Water Sense initiative.
When shaving, fill the lavatory basin with hot water instead of letting the water run continuously.
Use a faucet aerator, and you will cut down on your water usage without noticing any changes in water pressure. You won’t notice the difference in the amount of water when you use it. In fact, the water pressure may even feel stronger after the aerator is installed. Meanwhile, the aerator is allowing you to save water usage by about half! Saving your household about 280 gallons per month.
Use cold water. Even washing hands can be done safely with soap and cold water. Hot water should be added only when hands are especially dirty.
Shampoo hair in the shower. Shampooing in the shower takes only a little more water than is used to shampoo hair during a bath and much less than shampooing and bathing separately.
Take a shower instead of taking a bath. Showers with low-flow showerheads often use less water than taking a bath.
If you must take a bath, lower your water level by one to two inches.
Perhaps the biggest waste of water, money and energy are those long, hot showers. They can use five to ten gallons for every unneeded minute.
Install a low-flow showerhead that limits the flow from the shower to less than three gallons per minute.
If you’re looking for a professional Plumber then please call us today at (858-536-4161) or complete our online request form.
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