How Low Flow Fixtures Can Help You Save on Water
Reducing your household water consumption offers many benefits. Besides helping to conserve resources, saving water will also help to lower your utility bills. Additionally, conserving water through the use of low-flow toilets, shower-heads and faucets also helps conserves energy used to treat and heat water.
According to the EPA, if all American households switched over to high-efficient plumbing fixtures the country would conserve over three trillion gallons of water each year, amounting to an annual savings of over $18 billion dollars.
Low-Flow Toilets
Toilets are commonly the culprit of wasting the most water in the home, accounting for almost 30 percent of indoor water consumption. Most toilets made prior to 1994 use more than 1 1/2 gallons of water per flush, and should be replaced with a low-flow model.
A high-efficiency, or low-flow, toilet that meets current EPA WaterSense standards will use approximately 1/4 of a gallon of water less per flush. For those living in California, new rules have mandated all new toilets either sold or installed after 2014 must be of low-flow design, and federal standards are like to follow suit. For commercial buildings, low flow urinals can also equal big saving on water, energy and money.
Low-Flow Shower-heads
Showering will typically account for as much as 20 percent of a household’s water consumption, but you can reduce your water use in the shower up to 70 percent by installing ultra-low-flow shower-heads.
Unlike the early low-flow shower-heads, which delivered a very low water pressure, most of the current high-efficiency shower-head models produce a strong stream.
Older shower-heads typically use over 2.5 GPM, but replacing an inefficient model with a low-flow shower-head will save 1/2 gallon of water per minute. For just a family of two this can cut your water use by over 1,000 gallon per year!
Low-flow shower-heads also save big bucks on energy bills, by reducing demand on your home’s water heater. According to the EPA, a low-flow showerhead can save approximately 300 kilowatts of electricity each year, which is enough to run a television for the same time period.
Low-Flow Faucets
Many people overlook the importance of low-flow faucets, but replacing just the old bathroom-sink faucet with a low-flow model can save over a gallon of water every time you brush your teeth.
This is because older, inefficient faucets use over 2 1/2 gallons of water per minute, whereas low-flow faucets meet the current EPA standard flow rate of less than 1 1/2 gallons per minute.
Don’t delay. Give Griesemer Plumbing & Mechanical a call at (317) 881-9536 to save money and lower the carbon footprint of your Indianapolis home without changing your busy lifestyle.
