Conserving Water

Tips for Conserving Water

4 Easy Ways to Conserve

  1. Watch how much water you use when doing dishes, brushing your teeth, showering and washing your car.

  2. Fix leaks A faucet that drips can waste up to 3,280 gallons of water per year. A leaking toilet can waste many times more than this amount. Most leaks are easy to repair.

  3. Landscaping accounts for 20-50% of all residential water use and provides the best opportunity for water conservation at home. Follow easy landscaping tip on this site to use less and save money.

  4. There are numerous water - saving devices on the market. Look for aerators, flow regulators, low-flow toilets, and displacement devices to make your home conservation friendly.

Save Water Indoors

Doing Dishes

When you wash dishes by hand, use wash and rinse basins rather than running water. Soak pots and pans before washing. Use minimal detergent so you don’t have to rinse as much.

If using a dishwasher, do only full loads and avoid extra cycles. Cut down on the amount of rinsing before loading as most modern dishwasher do an excellent job of cleaning by themselves.

Washing Up and Brushing Teeth

Try a faucet aerator on your sink to reduce water while maintaining flow. Take shallow baths.

Keep showers short and use a low-flow shower head.

A flow restrictor lets you maintain the faucet setting and shut off water at the shower head while soaping and shampooing. A quick shower rather than a bath can save an average of 20 gallons per shower.

When brushing your teeth, just turn on the water to rinse your mouth.

The Toilet

Do not use the toilet as your wastebasket. Flush only when necessary. If your toilet is not a low-flow model, you can install a water-saving displacement device in the tank to reduce the amount of water needed to flush. Test your tank for leaks by adding dye, wait 15 minutes, then check your bowl for the dye. This can be fixed by changing the flapper valve.

Replacing an old toilet with a new model can save the typical household 7,900 to 21,700 gallons of water per year. An average of 20% of all toilets leak. Toilets account for almost 30% of all indoor water use.

Save Water Outdoors

Driveways, Sidewalks and Walkways

Instead of hosing these down, use a broom or leaf blower to remove dead leaves and other debris.

Hoses

Repair all leaks and install a water saving shutoff nozzle that can be adjusted to fit the task at hand.

Lawns and Gardens

Water during the morning or evening to avoid excess evaporation. Do not water on windy days. Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only, not the street or sidewalk. Use soaker hoses and trickle irrigation systems. Install moisture sensors on sprinkler systems. Use drought tolerant and native plants as they require less care and water than ornamental varieties. Maintain a lawn height of 2 1/2 to 3 inches to help protect the roots from heat stress and reduce the loss of moisture to evaporation.

Remember, if water is running down the sidewalk or curb line, you are wasting water.