Flushing out water savings

Easy ways to conserve and save money

Reducing the amount of water you use in your home can be accomplished easily and inexpensively without significantly changing your lifestyle.

A good place to start is by testing for leaks, since they account for large amounts of water waste and often go undetected for long periods of time. A leak of one drip per second will waste 10,000 litres of water a year. It’s a good idea to periodically check your water meter, comparing the readings from the late evening and from the morning. Often, fixing a leak is a simple case of replacing a worn washer.

Bathroom

Toilets should be checked, as they can quietly allow a small but continuous flow through the flapper valve inside the tank that you might not notice. An easy way to test your toilet for leaks is to put some food colouring in the holding tank and wait about 15-20 minutes. If, without flushing, the colour shows up in the bowl, you’ve got a leak that is adding to your water bill. If your flapper valve needs replacing, look for a compatible replacement valve for your specific toilet model.

Toilets can also be the biggest water guzzlers in your house. Over a quarter of the water consumed in most homes – about 30,000 litres per person each year – is literally flushed down the toilet. The most effective way to reduce the amount of water used is to replace your existing toilet with a water-efficient toilet that flushes with six litres or less. Good-performance low-flush toilets can cut water waste by half or more without compromising performance.

Other ways to reduce water consumption in the bathroom include taking shorter showers or cutting down on the amount of water you use to fill the tub. You could also avoid running water when brushing your teeth, washing or shaving; fill a cup or the sink instead, and you could reduce water use by 60 to 80% when doing these tasks. Installing a low-flow showerhead and faucet aerators are other good ways to conserve water in the bathroom.

Kitchen and laundry room

In the kitchen you can save water by using a low-flow faucet aerator and washing fruits and vegetables in a clean, partially filled sink or container instead of letting the water run.

Be sure to fully load your dishwasher before running it. If you wash dishes by hand, partially fill one sink with soapy water for washing and the other with clear water for rinsing. If you only have one sink, place washed dishes in a dish rack and rinse them all at once with a spray of water.

Another big water hog inside your home – up to 20% of your total water consumption – can be your washing machine. To save water, be sure to run only full loads of laundry. If you have an older washing machine, you might want to consider replacing it with a new water-efficient model. These new machines will help you recoup your investment through savings in water and energy charges.

Using water more wisely in your home will pay off – in your wallet and for the environment.

Source: Homes-Extra.ca

Saving water need not be complicated; the simple act of repairing a small pipe leak adds up to huge savings over time. Habits can be hard to change sometimes.  Water Rhapsody’s water conservation systems ensure that you save water, without the need for changing too many habits.  If you like to have a deep bath, and you have a greywater recycling system installed, you can continue to enjoy this luxury.  The bath water will not be wasted- it will be used to irrigate your garden and lawns or for flushing toilets.  Water Rhapsody’s Multi-Flush toilet system is better than a dual-flush or low-flow toilet; the amount of water used to flush is totally user-controlled (see product demo).  Swimming pools flush out vast quantities of water every time you backwash.  The solution is to install Water Rhapsody’s Poolside Tank; this ingenious system reuses 100% of your backwash water, returning it to the pool after cleaning it in a water tank.  Swimming pools should also be checked for leaks (an inch-a-day leak in a 15-by-30-foot pool can waste approximately 102,000 gallons per year!). See Water Saving Tips for your Swimming Pool for more ways to save water at your pool.