Running a commercial property or your home comes with added costs of utility bills such as water and electricity, and if these bills are not monitored, things could run amok. Some people can rack up such high utility bills that meeting mortgage payments or rent becomes a huge problem. If you are struggling with skyrocketing water bills, here are seven ways of bringing it down to a manageable level.
Loads of Laundry
As per the National Geographic, almost 22% of household water consumption comes from the laundry. The figure is even higher in homes where occupants are involved including young children. Some people prefer to wash clothes on a daily basis or every other day to keep everything pristine and tidy. While this method is perfectly fine, it also means you spend more water than usual because of doing laundry in small loads. Try washing clothes twice or once a week, so the loads are more significant which means you are consuming less water. A fact: front-loading machines are generally more energy efficient and use about 20 gallons of water per load while top-loading machines use 40 gallons per load.
Dishwasher and Full Load
Maintaining a squeaky clean kitchen means cleaning up after preparing meals, cleaning up after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The average kitchen sink can hold about 30 litres of water, and some people can use two or three sink loads each time. If you typically wash dishes more than twice or thrice per day, the chances are that your water meter is running full throttle. If you don’t have a dishwasher, it is high time you invested in one. Similar to laundry, load the dishwasher to capacity to reduce water consumption. It also doesn’t hurt to replace your outdated dishwasher with a more energy efficient model even if the initial costs are high.
Insulating Pipes
Most people cannot comprehend stepping into the shower until the water is hot enough, hence wasting water running the bath for a full minute or so. With some people taking showers in the morning and evening, that translates to thousands of litres of precious water lost in any given year. You can solve this problem by insulating your water pipes with foam to cut back on time spent until the water gets hot. Foam is readily available in most hardware stores, and you can find one that is shaped like a pipe to ease the insulation process. In the same breath, keep your showers short, so you don’t use up all the water.
Fixing Leaks
Can you imagine going on vacation and leaving water leaking all over the place; the kitchen, shower, bathtub, a few pipes in the yard? Leaky faucets, damages in the piping system, faulty fittings, and other plumbing issues are the most common problems that lead to higher water consumption. Waste from leaky faucets can add up to gallons per annum, so it is expedient to fix them promptly. The same applies to leaky toilets which are estimated to waste 50,000 to 100,000 litres of water per day. Inspect these leak-prone areas around your home and dial AR Lake Plumbing to take care of these repairs. This could make a significant difference in your water bills.
Brushing Teeth
The Academy of General Dentistry surmises that the average person spends anywhere between 45 – 70 seconds brushing teeth. Most people have become accustomed to leaving the water running during this all-too-important dental hygiene task at least twice per day. The National Geographic notes that the average faucet releases 2.5 gallons of water per minute, so please make a habit of turning off the water until rising time. The same applies to washing of hands; wet your hands and turn off the tap while you lather soap then turn on the water only when you are ready to rinse your hands. Teach your kids the same conservation habits, and eventually, these savings add up and keep you from spending more water than necessary.
Xeriscape Landscaping
Running the sprinklers every morning at dawn to keep the lawn and flower bed green and lush has a massive impact on the water bill and even more so in the dry season. A beautiful front and backyard don’t have to be pricey to maintain as you can opt for drought-resistant plants. Xeriscaping is very economical as these plants thrive on minimum moisture and what’s more, it gives your yard a fresh and unique look from what the surrounding properties. Examples of beautiful lesser-thirsty plants include cactus, purple sage, Joe Pye weed, Purple coneflower, and alpine succulents like Sempervivum. With such an array of flowers to adorn your garden, you can enjoy a beautiful yard without paying a pretty penny when the water bill arrives.
Low-Flow Toilet
Flushing the toilet after every use is best practice, but old toilets tend to use too much water. People who reside in cities like Perth and Adelaide experience water shortages every so often thus pushing residents to extreme conservation measures. How about not flushing your toilet after peeing? How about using harvested water in a bucket to flush the toilet? Harvesting water is a noble idea during the wetter months. If you cannot wrap your head around leaving urine in the bowl until next time, you need to upgrade this fixture. Alternatively, you can sink a half gallon jug of water inside the cistern to control the amount of water getting in which means using less water each time you flush.
In sum, there are many ways of conserving water inside the home, so you don’t have to dread the water bill. Upgrading appliances like a dishwasher and washing machine are vital as most modern options use considerably less water. Lastly, keep tabs on the meter so you can notice when consumption skyrockets and encourage residents to modify their water consumption habits. Remember, you have to lead by example so the kids can adapt conservation habits from a young age and carry this through adulthood.
