Conserve Water
With The Right Bathroom Fixtures
The bathroom is the best place to conserve water. It's effortless if you have the right fixtures in place.In the long run, installing these fixtures will save you significant money. Let's start with the biggest water user. TOILETS Toilets are by far the main source of water use in the home, accounting for nearly 30 percent of an average home's indoor water consumption. Older, inefficient toilets also happen to be a major source of wasted water in many homes.
Replacing these toilets with WaterSense labeled toilets could save nearly 2 billion gallons per day across the country—that’s nearly 11 gallons per toilet in your home every day!
Recent advancements have allowed toilets to conserve water by using 20 percent less water than the current federal standard, while still providing equal or superior performance.
The WaterSense label is used on toilets that are certified by independent laboratory testing to meet rigorous criteria for both performance and efficiency. Only toilets that complete the third-party certification process can earn the WaterSense label.
How Much Can WaterSense Labeled Toilets Save?
Over the course of your lifetime, you will likely flush the toilet nearly 140,000 times. If you replace older, existing toilets with WaterSense labeled models, you can save 4,000 gallons per year with this simpler, greener choice.
And Price?
WaterSense labeled toilets are available at a wide variety of price points and a broad range of styles. EPA estimates that a family of four that replaces its home's older toilets with WaterSense labeled models will, on average, save more than $90 per year in reduced water utility bills, and $2,000 over the lifetime of the toilets.
Additionally, in many areas, utilities offer rebates and vouchers that can lower the price of a WaterSense labeled toilet.
Whether remodeling a bathroom, starting construction of a new home, or simply replacing an old, leaky toilet that is wasting money and water, ththis is an opportunity to conserve water by installing a WaterSense-labeled toilet.
If every American home with older, inefficient toilets replaced them with new WaterSense-labeled toilets, we would save nearly 640 billion gallons of water per year, equal to more than two weeks of flow over Niagara Falls!
BATHROOM SINK FAUCET
Most of us know we can save water if we turn off the tap while brushing our teeth (as much as 3,000 gallons per year!), but did you know that there are products that will help conserve water when you turn on the tap too?
WaterSense labeled faucets and faucet accessories (such as aerators) are high-performing, water-efficient fixtures that will help you reduce water use in your home and save money on water bills.
Faucet Flows
Faucets account for more than 15 percent of indoor household water use—more than 1 trillion gallons of water across the United States each year. WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucets and accessories can conserve water by reducing a sink's water flow by 30 percent without sacrificing performance.
We could save billions of gallons each year by retrofitting the country's 222 million bathroom sink faucets with models that conserve water.
All products bearing the WaterSense label complete a third-party certification process that includes independent laboratory testing to ensure they meet EPA criteria.
Faucets and faucet accessories—products that can be attached easily to existing faucets to save water—that obtain the WaterSense label will have demonstrated both water efficiency and the ability to provide adequate flow.
WaterSense Savings
By installing WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucets or faucet accessories, an average household can save more than 500 gallons each year. Also, since these water savings will reduce demands on water heaters, households will also save energy.
Achieving these savings can be as easy as twisting on a WaterSense labeled aerator, which can cost as little as a few dollars.
If every household in the United States installed WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucets or faucet accessories, we could save more than $350 million in water utility bills and more than 60 billion gallons of water annually! In addition, U.S. homes could avoid about $600 million in energy costs for heating water.
Whether replacing an older, inefficient faucet, or simply looking for options to conserve water, choose a WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucet or faucet accessory. The next time you wash your hands or brush your teeth, you'll know that you're doing your part to help protect our precious water resources.
SHOWERHEADS
Showering accounts for approximately 17 percent of residential indoor water use in the United States—adding up to more than 1.2 trillion gallons of water each year nationwide.
To earn the WaterSense label, showerheads must not only conserve water, but also perform as well or better than conventional models on the market. Unlike toilets and bathroom faucets, however, there are no universally agreed upon testing protocols for showerhead performance.
In the future, showerheads bearing the WaterSense label will use no more than 2.0 gallons per minute (gpm). In addition to the water-efficiency criteria, the specification proposes requirements for three key performance attributes identified through consumer testing:
1.Flow rate across a range of pressures
2.Spray force
3.Spray coverage
These new requirements are designed to ensure a high level of performance and user satisfaction with WaterSense labeled showerheads.
Look for the WaterSense label on showerheads in early 2010. Replacing an older, inefficient showerhead will help reduce water use in the home and save on both energy and water utility bills. The EPA worked with a variety of stakeholders to develop these criteria so that showerheads can be independently tested and certified for efficiency and performance.
Don't hesitate to contact me if you have questions about how to conserve water by clicking here.
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