You hear it all the time; conserve water and save the planet. But no one really goes into detail about how water can actually be conserved. With all the plumbing issues that are around these days, it’s obvious that not very many people are doing their part in conserving water. Maybe if people were a little better informed about how they could be doing something different, they might be able to save their residential plumbing a little bit. Finding a plumber is not exactly hard but if you do not have to have one because you are using water less, that would be even better. Here are a few things that you can do in order to save yourself some water.
Turn it Off
Sounds simple right? You’d be surprised at how many people just let the water keep running. When you are doing dishes or brushing your teeth, turn the water off when you don’t need it. You can save almost 4 gallons of water per minute just by doing these two things. Imagine how much more you could save by turning the water off in between. For example, when you’re in the shower or even replacing the showers with baths.
Go Low Flow
You can either place a device in your toilet cistern that reduces the amount of water that is used every time you flush or you can invest in a low flow toilet. There are also low flow shower heads and faucets as well as washing machines that you can install in every place of your home that provides water. This will save an incredible amount of water over time.
Fill ‘Er Up
Don’t run the washing machine until you have a full load of clothes. Using one full load of water instead of a bunch of smaller loads will help to save water. The same goes for the dishwasher. You can’t pick the size of the load for dishwashers like you can for washing machines so it’s even more important to make sure the dishwasher is loaded up before you turn it on.
Fix the Drips
If you have a leaking faucet, not only will this waste water but it will give you an incredibly high water bill that you probably won’t be planning for. Make sure that you fix any dripping faucets and hose lines. Just to give you a better idea, a dripping faucet can mean plumbing issues that waste about 1,460 gallons of water a year.
Opt for the Can
A watering can that is. Instead of setting your garden up to be watered by a hose pipe, use a watering can to get your plants and flowers to grow better. A hose pipe easily uses 165 gallons per hour of use. A watering can cuts that by a lot. Using mulch and watering the early or very late hours when the sun is at a minimum can also help conserve water.
Use a Jug
If you fill a jug or pitcher up with tap water, you can leave that in the fridge as drinking water. This avoids having to leave the tap open on cold for a few minutes before the water gets to a desirable drinking temperature. The truth it, the faucet is never going to get as cold as the fridge anyway, so putting water in the fridge will make it taste better and save you from plumbing issues.
Install a Meter
If you have your own meter, then you can gauge how much water you are using compared to previous measurements. Either that or asked for itemized bill from your utility company so that you can see where you could be saving more water. It’s a great way to give yourself an incentive to save more on water as well as money.
You may not think that plumbing issues or saving water or money are that big of a deal but the more we save, the better of the planet will be for our children. There are so many places, even in the United States that are experiencing droughts and this could be avoided if everyone would do their part in conserving a little more water every day.
