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Plumbing for Water Conservation – Boston, Worcester

18 Apr 2013

Seeing as this month we celebrate Earth Day, we thought we could give you some ideas on how plumbers can help with water conservation in your home. You can actually make some small changes that can have large effects with water conservation.
 
For your home, there are plumbing fixtures that save water or use less waterLow-flow plumbing fixtures are permanent, one-time solutions that provide water conservation automatically with little or no additional cost. And, in most cases they can save you money over the long term.

Low-Flush Toilets. Homes account for about three-quarters of urban water demand and indoor water use is about 60% of that. Toilets use about 3.5 gallons of water per flush, which turns out to be about 40% of all indoor water usage. Can you believe that more than 4.8 billion gallons of water is flushed down toilets each day in the United States!

In new construction and in remodeling you have the potential to reduce that water usage by installing low flush toilets. Low-flush toilets use 1.6 gallons of water or less.
 
Even in existing homes replacing standard toilets with low-flush toilets is a practical and economical alternative.

Toilet Water Displacement Devices. Plastic containers (such as plastic milk jugs) can be filled with water or pebbles and placed in a toilet tank to reduce the amount of water used per flush. By putting one of these containers in the tank more than l gallon of water can be saved each time you flush.

Low-Flow Showerheads. Showers use about 20% of indoor water. For $5 you can replace standard showerheads with low flow showerheads and a family of four can save about  20,000 gallons of water per year.

Faucet Aerators. Faucet aerators break the flowing water into more fine droplets. They have the same effect and are very inexpensive. They can be installed in any sink to reduce water use by as much as 60%.

Water Pressure Reduction.  Flow is related to pressure. You can reduce the amount of flow from a water fixture. This is done by installing pressure reducing valves. These valves alone can reduce the amount of water used in your home.  If your home uses a well, reducing the water pressure can save both water and energy. However, washing machines and toilets need a controlled amount of water so a  pressure reducing valve will have little effect on these appliances.

For more information on reducing water usage in your Boston or Worcester area home, contact Greater Boston Plumbing and Heating.