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- By James Wisler
- Water Treatment
- [otfliker]
Because water is becoming a valuable commodity, homeowners are looking for ways to improve their water conservation. Here’s a list of my top five ways that you can conserve water.
- Get a Hot Water Recirculation System
Hot water recirculation systems make it so that you don’t have to run cold water down the drain while you’re waiting for the hot water to arrive at your shower or sink faucet. You don’t have to waste all that water while you’re waiting for the hot water to arrive, simply because the hot water gets there much more quickly.
- Check Your Toilets
Toilets that have leaky seals can waste a lot of water. One of the ways that you can check your toilets for leaks is by performing a dye test. Most toilets have a tank behind them. Just take the lid off the tank and place enough food coloring to cover the water. Do not flush the toilet and let the colored water sit for about 15 to 30 minutes. If you see any colored water in the bowl of the toilet, you have a leaking seal that’s wasting water by letting it through.
- Get Low Consumption Toilets
If you have any old toilets that were manufactured before 1994, they are more than likely going to be 3 gallon flush toilets. Most people with these old toilets don’t want to get a new replacement because they feel that newer models are of lesser performance. The engineering has come a long way when it comes to low consumption toilets. I would encourage anyone with a high volume flushing toilet to look into the performance of newer models. You can save a significant amount of water by replacing your old toilet with a lower consumption toilet.
- Stop Dripping Faucets
Dripping faucets are not good for your plumbing system or drains. Most people don’t think that a little drip amounts to much, but think about how much water gets wasted over a 24 hour period. One water drop every second adds up to a lot of drips (and eventually many gallons of water). All that wasted water will keep the drain constantly wet. If you have a dripping faucet, address it as soon as possible.
- Check Your Water Softener
If you have an old water softener that is set up to regenerate or backwash every few days (not by the gallon), it is a time clock unit. There are much more efficient systems out there. I encourage you to know what kind of water softener you have. If it’s backwashing every three days when it really didn’t need to, it’s going to use extra water. You would be surprised by how much water and salt you will save by upgrading your water softener.
26We check some of these things whenever we do an annual maintenance visit to your home. We do a dye test on all the toilets in the home, look at the age of the toilets, look for dripping faucets, and look at the water softener. If you’re interested in learning more about what you can do to conserve water in your home, contact us online or give us a call at (540) 483-9382.
