How to Reduce Water use at Home
With California in a drought once again, state officials are calling on local residents to cut water use by 15 percent compared to 2020.
BUT HOW?
Here are tips from H2ouse.org to reduce water use at home.
• Invest in a water-efficient toilet: About 27% of indoor water use comes from toilets. If you use a standard toilet, which uses up to 5 gallons a flush, you can put a half-gallon plastic bottle filled with pebbles in your toilet tank to displace water.
• Look for leaks: By reading your water meter, you can discover if there are any leaks in your house. An average of ten gallons of household water a day is lost to leaks. This equals about 14% of your daily water footprint.
• Install a low-flow shower head: These will save you 15 gallons of water during a 10-minute long shower. Take showers instead of baths. It takes around 50 gallons of water to fill a bathtub, so a shower will always be more efficient.
• Replace your top-loading clothes washer with a front loader.: machines: A top-loading machine will use around 40 gallons of water a load compared to 20 gallons for a front-loader. Energy Star rated washers with a Water Factor lower than 3.2 use 33% less water than regular clothes washers per load. See https://www.energystar.gov/productfinder/product/certified-clothes-washers/results. And use the right load size when doing laundry. Around 22% of indoor water use comes from laundry, so using the right load size will cut down on waste.
• Invest in an Energy Star dishwasher: Energy Star machines use around 4 gallons a load, while others typically use 6 gallons. Hand washing your dishes takes about 20 gallons
of water.
• Reduce outdoor water use: The best time to water your lawn or garden plants is between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. (early morning hours are best) in intervals – five minutes of water, then 10 minutes of absorption, then repeat. Plants and grass absorb water more effectively because there is little chance the water evaporating in the sun’s heat.
Before you make a decision, check with your local water supplier to see what rebates are being offered, from turf replacement and weather-based irrigation controllers to pool covers and greywater to landscape projects.
For more tips, see https://www.h2ouse.org/water-conservation/.
