If you’re looking for ways to reduce your household utility bills, consider installing water-efficient plumbing fixtures to help curb your consumption. Not only will efficient new fixtures help lower your water bills, they can reduce the amount of energy used by your water heater for even greater savings.
Use the Water Sense Label as Your Guide to Savings
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) introduced the Water Sense program in 2006 to make it easy for consumers to identify water-efficient products. According to the EPA, the program has saved over 757 billion gallons of water so far, and this represents significant savings on water and energy for homeowners across the country.
To qualify for Water Sense certification, a product has to perform just as well as a standard counterpart while using at least 20 percent less water. Some of the Water Sense fixtures on the market today that can bring you substantial savings are:
- Toilets: Certified water-saving toilets use 1.28 gallons of water or less per flush, compared to up to six gallons for older standard models and 1.6 gallons for basic low-flow versions. Some ultra-efficient toilets even have dual-flush capabilities that can use as little as 0.8 gallons per flush.
- Faucets: Federal regulations have set the maximum flow for sink faucets at 2.2 gallons per minute (gpm). Water Sense-certified faucets have a maximum output of just 1.5 gpm, which the EPA says can save a typical household about 700 gallons a year.
- Showerheads: On average, an American family uses 40 gallons of water per day for showering, which is about 17 percent of the total household usage. The flow from a standard showerhead is 2.5 gpm, compared to just 2.0 gpm for Water Sense-certified models. That half gallon per minute difference translates into eight gallons a day, or over 2,900 gallons per year. In addition to lowering your water bills, low-flow showerheads can save you over 370 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year if you have an electric water heater.
For more advice about installing water-conserving plumbing fixtures in your Indianapolis home, contact us today at Mowery Heating, Cooling and Plumbing.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Brownsburg, Indiana and surrounding areas about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).
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