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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