Using excess water or having leaks can cost you hundreds of dollars a year in wasted water. A simple toilet leak can use 50 extra gallons of water a day, and a faucet leak can waste up to 5,000 gallons a year. We’ve got some tips for keeping that water bill down.
Saving Water Indoors
- Think you might have a leak? Check by reading your water meter before and after a 2-hour period when water hasn’t been run in your home. If the reading isn’t exactly the same, you’ve got a leak.
- If you’ve got a well-water system and the pump comes on when no one is using water, you have a leak.
- Find out if the toilet is leaking by putting a few drops of food coloring into the toilet tank. If the color leaks into the bowl, replace the flapper.
- Get those dripping faucets repaired. Usually it’s a simple matter of replacing worn washers. Check all the washers in the house and replace them all at once.
- Replace “sticky” toilet handles.
- Make sure the flapper ball in the tank seats correctly.
- Don’t use the toilet as a wastebasket or ashtray. Avoid unnecessary flushing.
- Install faucet aerators to slow the flow of water.
- Rinse vegetables over a large bowl and reuse what would have gone down the drain to water plants.
- Keep drinking water in the refrigerator to avoid letting water run until it gets cool enough to drink.
- Defrost foods in the microwave instead of under running water.
- Insulate water heater and water pipes. (65% of the water you use is hot water.)