From Guest Blogger Diana Smith: Sustainable Living–Tips and Tricks for Saving Water in the Bathroom
If you want to save up some money on your water bill and also help your planet by not wasting more water than necessary, you have made a great decision. A bathroom is an ideal place for such money-saving projects and here are some tips on where to start.
Shower smart
There are several ways to save water while showering, and the first is to limit your shower time. Get a timer or a radio and limit yourself to 5 minutes or 2 songs. It can be hard at the beginning but you’ll get used to it. If you have a habit of shaving or brushing your teeth in the shower, turn off the water while you do so.
Another thing you can do is install a low-flow showerhead. Regular showerheads spend around 5 gallons per minute unlike low-flow ones that spend less than 2.5 gallons a minute. There are showerheads that have an option to reduce or turn off the flow while you shampoo or soap up. Getting a new showerhead may seem like a costly investment, but it will save you money in the long run.
Don’t waste water that flows out while you’re fixing the water temperature, but collect it into a bucket and later you can use it to water plants or flush the toilet.
Limit baths
Everyone likes to take a relaxing bath every once in a while, but they waste a lot of water. It takes a lot less water to take a shower than to fill a bathtub, actually about 4 to 7 times less. Better stick to showers if you want to save up some money on your water bill and treat yourself with a bath only occasionally. Plus, taking a shower saves time and makes you much cleaner.
Upgrade your sink
The first thing you can do is check your faucets for leaks. It doesn’t seem like much, but if your faucet drips at the rate of 1 drop per second during the entire day, it can waste as much as 2500 gallons a year.
Updating old fixtures in your bathrooms can save you a significant amount of money if you know what kind to choose. The flow rate of old faucets is usually 3 gallons a minute, but if you add aerators that regulate water pressure, you can cut it in half. Some aerators have multiple flow rate settings with which you can save up to 10,000 gallons a year. That is a significant amount of water that comes to total of about 150 bucks a year.
It is also smart to turn off water while you brush your teeth or shave, and you can reduce the water waste about 3 or 4 times. The same goes for your hands. Turn off the water when you soap your hands and rinse them quickly.
Toilets that save water
If you still have an old model of the toilet, it’s time to give it an upgrade. New models with a low-flow system spend less than 2 gallons per flush compared to as much as 5 or 7 gallons in conventional toilets. There are also so called “dual-flush” models with a light flush that uses only 0.9 gallons and a stronger one that uses 1.6 gallons. Let’s say that an average person uses the toilet 5 times a day, so you do the math and see how much money you can save. A lot of water also gets wasted if you have a leaky toilet, and you might not even see it. There is a neat trick to check for leaks. Put dye in the water tank and if you see color in the bowl before flushing, it’s time to call the plumber. Also, avoid flushing trash down the toilet. It wastes water and you can even clog the toilet and cause further damage.
When you calculate that an average person uses almost 100 gallons of water per day, you realize why it’s important to start saving it. By making only a few modifications in your bathroom and by changing your daily habits just a bit, you will not only help save the planet, but you will save some serious money along the way.
At one time “soap” valves were sold for installation just ahead of the shower head. They made it convenient to turn off the water while soaping up. Probably they can still be found.
A hand-held shower head is a good idea. With it, you can use the water more efficiently by applying it directly where it is needed.
Forget about collecting water in a bucket while waiting for the hot water to arrive. It is so inconvenient that very few people will actually do it. There is a much more convenient solution. Check out this link for a more convenient and practical solution:
https://www.taco-hvac.com/news.html?News=91
As for saving water while shaving, why not just stop shaving? It is an unnecessary and unnatural act which can cause a multitude of problems, especially for those of us who have the incompatible combination of tough beard and tender skin. Instead of shaving, just every two weeks or so use electric barber clippers to cut the beard down to perhaps 1/16 of an inch. It is easy to do, painless, requires no water, and requires no skill.
One can put flow restrictors on faucets, but I really don’t understand how they can save water. If one wishes to fill a one gallon bucket, it will take one gallon regardless of whether or not a flow restrictor is used. I find that flow restrictors actually waste water. While waiting for a bucket to fill slowly, I do something else then when I return, I find the bucket is overflowing and water has been wasted.
You can save water by taking off your shoes when entering the house. That way the floors will require washing less often. Being careful not to drop or spill things in the kitchen will reduce the need to wash the kitchen floor. In general, not being a slob reduces washing and cleaning requirements.
Toilets should have fill valves which will turn on suddenly when the water in the tank drops. That way it is obvious when the flapper valve leaks because one will hear the water turn on suddenly. That eliminates the need to use dye or other tricks to detect leaks. Most modern toilets work that way anyway. Also, if you learn how to replace or adjust the flapper valve yourself, you will be more likely to fix it promptly because you will not have to spend money on a plumber. It is really quite easy to fix. Most people can figure out now to do it by visually inspecting it. New flapper valves are readily at Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware, Samons, and similar stores. They will even help you select the right flapper valve.
The soap valves still exist and I have one and use it. I also do the bucket thing.
Shaving takes me about a quart of water. I fill the bowl and don’t run the faucet.
I also will collect the last rinse water from the clothes washer in a bucket to prefill the next wash cycle. This is pretty easy to do. Washer fills 3 times 5 gallons each. I save last pump out and put about 3.5 gallons of that in the next wash cycle. It’s not a lot but it is something. Years ago washers had a option for a “suds saver” which was a tank that the wash cycle was pumped into to be used for the next wash cycle. I actually have one of these valves. They should re-implement this but use it the way I do to save the last rinse to use for the first wash cycle. The rules say I can’t put anything down the drain that doesn’t come out of the faucet. It doesn’t say how many times I can use it before it goes down the drain.
It would be very easy for washing machine manufacturers to re-implement the “suds saver”. Perhaps they would if a demand for it were created.
Unless saving water is made easy and convenient, few people will make an effort to save water.