Unfortunately, there are many ways a house can waste water and send water bills skyrocketing. Some are bad habits. Others can come from repair troubles or out-of-date fixtures. It’s not difficult to make changes that will get those water bills back under control—and benefit the environment as well with water conservation.
We’re going to look at several ways you or your home’s plumbing system are wasting water unnecessarily.
Excessively long showers
You knew this was going to show up on this list, so we put it first to get the suspense out of the way. There’s no such thing as “too many” reminders to lower the amount of time spent in the shower. Keep your shower time to under five minutes, and stress this with other members of your household. Provide timers for the bathrooms to help people keep shower times down.
Hidden plumbing leaks
If those usage amounts on your monthly bills are alarmingly high, then it could be a warning you have major hidden plumbing leaks. This is a too-common problem in homes, and the leaks may go for months before found and fixed—and by then, they’ve not only caused expensive water waste, they’ve probably cause building damage. Arrange for our plumbers to do leak detection to discover if this is why your home is using too much water.
Old toilets that need upgrades
The new low-flow flush toilet models use around 1.28 gallons per flush. A standard toilet can use 2 or 3 gallons per flush. Older toilets, such as one that’s been in a home’s bathroom for more than 20 years, may use up to 5 to 6 gallons per flush! You can see what a huge difference in water use an old toilet makes. We strongly recommend having low-flow models installed, which can save you thousands of gallons annually.
Using the toilet as a garbage can
This is a bit of “worst practices” for toilets, but it’s also one that happens too often. The toilet should not be used to discard standard trash and garbage. Those extra flushes add up to water waste, but it also puts the toilet in greater danger of clogging. Don’t flush wipes (no matter if they claim they’re “flushable”) or cat litter.
Running the dishwasher half-empty
It’s true that using the dishwasher can conserve water compared to trying to wash all the dishes by hand. But the dishwasher will also become a water waster if it’s run when not full! Make sure each dishwasher load is full, and you can also run it on a gentle cycle (it can get the job done most of the time) to further lower water consumption.
If you need service from professional plumbers in Durham, NC or the surrounding areas. We can take care of any plumbing needs you have.
