Posted: 6/4/13
By Jon Korman
SHOWERS
Every day we turn on the water and we expect to have an endless supply. In an industrial world, we have infrastructure. We take showers, and many of us might occasionally take long showers. On an average if you were to take a 10 minute shower and your shower produces 3 gallons per minute, then on average weekly basis, you would be using 210 gallons per week and 10,920 gallons per year. If you wanted to reduce your shower time by 2 minutes, you would be using 168 gallons per week, which is 8,736 gallons per year. In total, you would be saving 42 gallons per week, which adds up to a savings of 2,184 gallons per year just by cutting back a couple minutes on your shower each day. This shows that small changes that you make to your routines can have major benefits in the long run.
TIPS
- Put a timer or set an alarm in the bathroom to track the length of your showers.
⁃ Use a bucket to save the cool water as you wait for your shower to heat up. You can use this water for your plants.
LOW FLUSH TOILETS AND WATER EFFICIENT APPLIANCES
Though shortening the length of your showers is an easy and immediate way to decrease your water usage, there are many other ways to conserve. According to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, toilets are the biggest water consumers in the home. Older toilets could use as much as 7 gallons per flush, but new, low flush toilets use only 1.6 gallons. If homeowners replace their old toilets with these efficient models, they will be helping out water supply from depleting and have significantly lower water bills, too. Water depletion is a constant issue in the world and by taking a step forward and using new efficient technologies, you can make a gigantic difference.
TIPS
- When looking for new appliances, look for the EnergyStar logo
- Make sure that your faucet is closed tightly and that leaks are addressed.