In the US, many of us don’t often stop to think about how we take clean, pure water for granted. Below are a few simple steps you can take at home to help conserve and preserve this natural resource.
Crystal,clear, sparkling water: it can cool you to the core. It nourish and rejuvenate you. We can also use, and use and use it until all that is left is that murky trickle of useless brown liquid. In the US, we’re quite lucky to have some of the most pure, clean water in the world- granted, we’re a developed nation, but it doesn’t make us any less lucky to have the health of the water system that we do. Along with the health of the water system comes a gross over use of this resource that we have come to take for granted. The EPA states that “if one out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year—avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That is equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year!” How insane is that? There are definitely some things we can do to save water and save energy.
Here are some quick tips and facts to get you started as we head into the warmer months were we all get tempted to water the lawn and fill up that kiddy pool:
Rain Barrels- start collecting the run off from your roof and gutters in rain barrels. Rain barrels are simple, ancient techniques or capturing water and storing it for future usage be it for watering the plants or hosing off a dirty car. Rain barrel programs can be found in your community, but you can also purchase barrels for $75-350 depending on size.
Native or drought tolerant landscaping- think about how your land collects water and design a landscape of native and local plants which are drought tolerant for your area. This will mean that you will have to water much less and your pocket book will thank you come time for that water bill! Plus, Native plants can also enhance your landscape.
Low-flow toilets- in this day and age, low flow toilets have been designed to utilize 20 percent less water and while providing equal if not higher performance. Who doesn’t want a high performance toilet?! If you don’t want to fork over the extra bucks for a new low flow toilet, there are tricks, like adding a brick to your toilet tank to have less water in your tank, but, you may want to discuss this with your plumber.
High Efficiency showerheads- Watersense says that “the average household could save more than 2,300 gallons per year by installing WaterSense labeled showerheads. Since these water savings will reduce demands on water heaters, households will also save energy. In fact, a household could save 300 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, enough to power its television use for about a year. If every household in the United States installed WaterSense labeled showerheads, we could save more than $1.5 billion in water utility bills and more than 250 billion gallons of water annually, which could supply more than 2.5 million U.S. homes with their water needs for a year. In addition, we could avoid about $2.5 billion in energy costs for heating water.”
Did you know that if you shorten your shower by a minute or two you can save up to 150 gallons of water in a month? This little factoid is thanks to the Water- Use it Wisely website.
You may have already known many of these things; however, it is never too late for a refresher, especially when it comes to water. Water is so very important! If you ever have any questions about how you can make your home more water-efficient, just ask! We’re happy to help!
Tags: drought tolerant plants, energy efficient shower heads, low flow shower heads, low flow toilets, native plants, rain barrels, rain gardeing, rain gardens, water collection, water conservation, watersense products, watersense toilets
