21 Ways to Save Money on Your Water Bill
Posted in Home, Home Archive | Thursday, May 20th, 2010
In an effort to lower our water bill, I’ve been researching different tactics. So far we’ve only seen a small reduction in our bill so far, but we’ve only been doing this for a month, and we haven’t done everything on the following list. I hope to lower our bill by 15% over the next few months. If you rent, forward this post or print it out for your landlord. Let them know that you’ll do what you can do help and they might just lower your rent, or at least not raise it!
- Only use the dishwasher once a week and when it’s completely full. (There’s only two of us, we were just being lazy)
- Wash dishes in a large bowl or basin in the sink. That way, you don’t have to fill up the whole sink with water.
- Put a brick or water bottle with sand at the bottom in your toilet tank. (Put it in the tank opposite the flushing mechanism so that it will displace the water, therefore using less)
- Turn off the water after you brush your teeth.
- Turn off the shower when you are putting conditioner/detangling your hair. (I do this, and it works!)
- Use a low-flow showerhead.
- Use self-watering pots in the garden. (They don’t need to be watered as often)
- Fix a leaky toilet ASAP!
- Reuse your plate, cups and silverware at home. (Don’t grab a new cup every time you’re thirsty!)
- Re-wear some of your clothes for less laundry. (Jeans don’t have to be washed every time you wear them)
- Hand wash delicates.
- Insulate your water pipes with pre-slit foam insulation.
- Wash clothes in cold water. (I still use hot water for sheets, towels, and cleaning cloths)
- Take a short bath instead of a long shower.
- Use a rain barrel to water your garden.
- Use energy-star rated dishwasher
- Use an energy star rated front-loading washing machine (They statistically use less water)
- Install aerators on all faucets (This is really cheap!)
- Use washers on spigots and hoses when watering.
- Wash your car with a bucket of water, not a constantly flowing hose of water.
- Spread organic mulch in your garden, and you’ll have to water less.
Check out the Savvy Shop link below for all kinds of Water saving ideas.
Water Saving Items at the Savvy Shop
Resources:
http://www.eartheasy.com/live_water_saving.htm
http://www.americanwater.com/49ways.php
http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/index.php
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I believe being healthy doesn't have to be complicated, being green can be easy and being broke isn't an option!
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Our water co. sent us a bill that was nearly 300$.. using over 25K gal of water in the month. No, We do not have a new Pool in the yard. After searching the house, this 15K gallon leak was simply an old Flapper in the kids bathroom. AMAZING..
I fixed all the drips in the house and we expect this months usage to be nearly 20k gal less. Wake up and Fix that DRIP!
@Vito Thanks for sharing your story! I had a similiar problem when we renovated out house. There was a leak in a toilet we weren’t even using because of the reno, and we didn’t catch it until we had a $200 water bill!
Ok, At your request..
How we quit draining 15K+ gallons on Water down the toilet..
Short story long, We “knew” about the leaky sink in our bathroom, so a trip to the local Lowe’s to get a new insert to stop that leak. Over the years I have replaced all the innards for the toilets with new float assemblies and cut offs. The problem was, the kids bathroom is out of my sight and I only heard the water run off and on, so I thought to my self, it can’t be that bad. I’ll fix it some day.. After we got out current bill showing the water usage went from under 20k gal / month to over 35K, we got serious.
I shut off the water to the house and started looking around at the kids toilet. The funny thing was the tank was empty. I had only shut the water about 10 min earlier.
so, we turned things back on and I filled the tank and shut the water at the wall. Their toilet drained in 10 min.. 3.2 gal every 10 min.. you start to do that math and it’s over 500 gallons a day and ..15k a month. Back to Lowe’s I replaced the cutoff valve at the wall and all the hose and float assembly in the tank with a replacement design that prevents a leaky flapper from refilling the tank. Total cost: $25.00. After the water co rechecked our meter to see it quit spinning, they recalculated our usage and REFUNDED us over 250$. I fully expected to have to pay the bill. It was my fault the water wasted. Next month I hope to see a number under 20k gal again. And by fixing this, I have saved at least $500 / year in just the calculated sewer price. No telling how many gallons, (180,000 at the calculated rate….)
Hope that helps someone.. FIX THAT DRIP!! it’s more money than you think!
v
@Vito YOU ARE MY HERO! I can’t wait to show this to Sexy (my hubby). We are totally gonna do this.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_222375-320-403LG_4294822065_4294937087?productId=1061559&pl=1¤tURL=/pl_Toilet%2BTank%2BRepair%2BKits_4294822065_4294937087_
I’ve seen my friends do this at their houses before, but many have small cups (paper) to use when brushing their teeth so they don’t need to turn the water on and off. Not sure how eco friendly that is since they use paper cups (the kind that some used to/still use at the dentist for teeth cleaning). Also, some of my family members use buckets to shower. So kind of the same idea of the bucket for washing dishes, but there’s a bigger one in the tub where they fill it up with water and use that to shower (that’s how it’s done back home, in Ghana, so they’ve brought it here).
Hope this helps
The problem is that some people think water is just available in such an abundance that they don’t need to conserve it. That’s absolutely wrong.
Oh these are some tips that I actually can AND WILL use!!!!! I like the brick in the toilet tank one. I have some extra bricks laying around!
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Some very tips. Water is the most precious and valuable natural resource in our surroundings, but it is also a fact that it is being wasted the most. By following the suggestions which you have mentioned in the post will definitely gonna effect positively in the cause of saving water.