Old indoor water fixtures and forgetful ways can have a big impact on water use and your wallet. A few easy upgrades and simple behavior changes can lower your water bill year-round.
Saving water also helps cut wastewater and energy costs, too. It all adds up. Here’s a list of handy tips to help you conserve water around your home.
Free and easy tips
Wash only full loads of laundry in your washing machine or full loads of dishes in your dishwasher.
Turn the water off. Minimize faucet use when shaving, brushing teeth, and washing dishes. Replace older bathroom faucet nozzles (aerators) with new ones that are rated at 1.5 gallons per minute, or less.
Shorten your shower by one minute. Cut back on your shower time and you will rack up big savings in water and energy. If you really want to save, limit your shower time to five minutes or less.
Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily. Dispose of tissues and other similar waste in the trash rather than the toilet.
Take showers instead of baths. A bathtub holds up to 50 gallons of water – much more than a normal shower would use. (A typical shower uses less than 20 gallons.)
Don’t pre-rinse dishes. Check to see if your dishwasher can clean dishes without pre-rinsing them. Most newer dishwashers don’t require pre-rinsing.
Some cost, but greater savings
Fix leaking faucets and toilets. An average of 8 percent (or more) of all home water use is wasted through leaks. Dripping faucets can be quickly identified (and repaired), but other leaks are less obvious.
Testing for leaks is easy. For example, test for a leaking toilet by lifting the lid off the toilet tank and putting a few drops of food coloring into the bowl. Wait a few minutes, then look in the bowl. If the food coloring has made its way there, you have a leak that needs repair.
Update older showerheads. Showers are typically the third largest home water use after toilets and clothes washes. Efficient showerheads use 2.5 gallons per minute or less.
Replace older toilets with “WaterSense” models. Toilets 10 years old or older may be using three-and-a-half to seven gallons per flush. The new WaterSense toilets are certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to use a maximum of 1.28 gallons per flush while still providing reliable performance. These advanced high-efficiency toilets are 20 percent more efficient that the current 1.6 gallons per flush standard.
Purchase a new high-efficiency clothes washer. These washing machines do more with less water, energy and laundry detergent. They reduce drying time, get clothes cleaner and are gentler on fabrics. Since clothes washers typically last 10 or more years, these advantages worth considering.
The city of Bellevue, in partnership with Cascade Water Alliance, offers a range rebate programs and services to help residents manage their home water use. To learn more, visit http://cascadewater.org/con_rebates.html or call Bellevue Utilities at 425-452-4127.
