WATER CONSERVATION AND TIPS FOR YOUR HOME

Water covers three quarters of our planet, and is often taken for granted because of the perception that all of the water is readily available for human consumption or potable use. However, clean water is a very limited resource. Only a small fraction of the earth’s fresh water is available for our use. Water conservation can have a positive impact for both you and your community’s financial and environmental resources. The following tips can help all of us save money on our overall utility bills and conserve water without compromising our standard of living.

Check for Leaks
Your meter contains a leak detection indicator, a small red triangle on the meter face or for the new electronic meters a blinking faucet image. The following procedures must be used to evaluate if your meter is indicating a leak:

Toilet Leaks
Does your toilet cycle when no one is in the bathroom? Do you have to jiggle the handle to stop the toilet from running? These are all symptoms of worn and leaking toilet components. In many cases, the toilet can waste hundreds of gallons of water a day without making a sound. An easy test to see if your toilet may be leaking is to add food coloring or non-staining dye tablets to your toilet tank water. Let the toilet stand for 30 minutes. If the bowl water changes color after that time, it indicates that the toilet tank water is leaking into the bowl and down the drain. Leak detection tablets can be obtained at our office at no cost to assist you in determining if you have leaks. Pick some up and test your toilets. Please see our "How to Detect a Leaky Toilet" for photos and video tutorials.

Shower & Faucet Leaks
A steady drip can waste 20 gallons per day amounting to more than 7,000 gallons per year. That’s equal to 280, 10- minute showers. These leaks are very easy to determine. Often, repairs can be made by replacement of washers and “O”- rings contained in do-it-yourself repair kits found at your local hardware store.

Bath and Laundry
Approximately 2/3 of the water wasted in the home can be attributed to bathroom activities. Considerable water can be saved by:

• Turning off the water while brushing your teeth or shaving. Don't let the water run when you brush your teeth, wash your face or hands, or shave.
• Use your washing machine only when completely full or at the lowest water level based on the size of your load. A front load washer uses 1/3 less water than a top loading machine.
• Not allowing the water to run for long periods of time before getting into the shower.
• Taking shorter showers using a low flow fixture instead of a bath. Low flow showerheads deliver 2.5 gallons of water per minute or less and are relatively inexpensive. Older showerheads use 5 to 7 gallons per minute.
• Do not use toilets as ashtrays or trash receptacles. Each unnecessary flush wastes water.
• If you have an older toilet (pre 1994), consider replacing it with a new low flow or high efficiency toilet. High Efficiency toilets use 1.28 or less gallons of water per flush. Using these could cut indoor water use by as much as 20%. Older toilets use 3.5 to 7 gallons per flush.
• Check all faucets, pipes, and toilets periodically for leaks. A faucet drip or invisible leak in the toilet will add up to 15 gallons of water a day, or 105 gallons a week, which adds up to 5,475 gallons of wasted water a year.

Kitchen Conservation

• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the faucet until the water is cold.
• Use your dishwasher only when completely full or at the lowest water level based on the size of your load.
• When washing dishes by hand, instead of running the water continuously wash all the dishes first then rinse together in the draining rack. Another option is to use one basin or pan for washing and another for rinsing.
• Compost your garbage instead of putting it down the garbage disposal. Garbage disposals use a great deal of water and add unnecessary solids to your septic system.
• During cooking, use appropriate pot sizes, steam vegetables and reuse cooking water to water plants after its cooled down.
• Update your faucet. Adding an aerator to your kitchen faucet can cut water consumption by up to half. A 1.0-gallon per minute (gpm) aerator can save more than 50 percent of the water you use when compared to standard 2.2 gpm faucet aerators. Depending on the aerator, you can save anywhere from 2 to 16 gallons of water per day

Outside Activities

• Use a broom instead of a hose to clean sidewalks, driveways and patios. Set sprinklers so they do not water driveways, sidewalks or paved areas.
• Keep your grass 2" to 3" high. Taller grass retains moisture better
• Water during cooler parts of the day preferably in the early morning. Do not over water your lawn
• Do not water after grass goes dormant (brown). Dormancy is part of the natural life cycle of grass
• Do not water during or immediately after rain storms. Install a rain sensor and soil moisture sensor
• Do not leave hoses running while watering or washing; install automatic shutoff nozzles
• Abide by the odd/even outdoor water use policy and any outdoor water restrictions the KCWA or state may impose. Every Drop Counts: Install low water use devices. Conventional fixtures and appliances require more water than necessary under normal pressure

Car Washing

• Wash vehicles using a bucket with soapy water. Soap and water usually work well. Be sure to turn the running water off while you are washing a vehicle
• Rinse vehicles with a hose equipped with an automatic shutoff nozzle. A standard garden hose uses about 10 gallons per minute. This means you use 100 gallons of water with only a 10-minute car wash. When you use an automatic shutoff nozzle on your hose, water does not flow continuously while you wash your vehicle, saving as much as 70 gallons per wash. Using a power washer can conserve even more water; power washers use, on average, about 2 to 5 gallons per minute, with a potential savings of up to 80 gallons over using a standard hose without an auomatic shutoff nozzle
• Consider going to a commercial car wash. Newer car wash facilities have water reclamation systems that enable the car wash to re-use water many times over. This allows the car wash to only use fresh water for the final rinse cycle, using only 20-30 gallons of water per wash compared to 40-140 gallons per wash at home

Considerable savings can be realized by simple retrofitting of existing devices, replacing conventional showerheads, toilets and washing machines with modern low use models. Installing a low flow aerator on each household faucet and a low flow shower head are inexpensive means to conserve considerable amounts of water, along with overall utility savings. Residential conservation kits are available at our office free of charge (1 per customer). These kits contain low-flow faucet aerators, a low-flow showerhead and tips.

Related Topics

Conservation
How To Read Your Meter
How To Test For Leaks
Meter Accuracy Test
Drink Water Watch