Conserving Water Indoors

leaky faucet

low flow shower head

Fix that leak.

  • Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, you probably have a leak.
  • Faucets can drip at a rate of one drop per second, wasting more than 3,000 gallons of water a year.
  • Toilets can leak at a rate of 200 gallons a day, which can add up to 73,050 gallons of water a year. To find out if you have a leak, place a drop of food coloring in the tank. If the color shows in the bowl without flushing, you have a leak.

Being squeaky clean.

  • Taking a five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons of water. Install a water-saving showerhead to reduce the flow.
  • A full bath tub requires about 70 gallons of water. Place a stopper in the drain immediately and adjust the temperature as you fill the tub to limit waste.

Turn off that faucet.

  • The average bathroom faucet flows at a rate of two gallons per minute. Turning off the tap while brushing your teeth saves up to eight gallons of water per day, 240 gallons a month, 2,880 gallons a year.

Make it a full load.

  • The average washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load. High-efficiency washing machines use less than 28 gallons of water per load.
  • Wash only full loads of laundry or use the appropriate load-size selection on the washing machine to save water.

Don’t flush your money down the drain.

  • If your toilet was made before 1993, you probably have an inefficient model that uses at least 3.5 gallons per flush. New high-efficiency models use less than 1.3 gallons per flush. Installing a new toilet could save a family of four more than $90 on their water bill annually; $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilet.
6/13/2009 1:46:22 AM
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