Water Conservation

Trouble-Shooting The Toilet

• The toilet is responsible for the most indoor water usage in the American home – a full 26 percent.
• Over a lifetime, an American flushes the toilet 140,000 times – that’s around 5 flushes a day for more than 75 years.
• A leaky toilet can waste up to 200 gallons of water a day; and it can leak for years – without anyone noticing – because water leaks into the toilet bowl and not on the floor. A leaky toilet, on average, wastes the most water of all appliances in the American home.
• Old, conventional toilets use 3.5 gallons per flush (gpf). On the other hand, new, high-efficiency toilets use 1.3 gpf – that’s more than 60 percent less than older models.

Beware the Lingering Shower

• The shower accounts for 17 percent of indoor water use; and the typical shower last about 8 minutes.
• By cutting your shower time down to five minutes, you could save more than 80 gallons of water a week.
• Bath vs. Shower: Which is bluer? A five-minute shower uses 10 to 25 gallons of water. A bath uses around 70 gallons. When given the choice between a bath and a shower, the blue choice is the shower.
• The average showerhead uses 2.5 gallons of water a minute. By using a high-efficiency, bluer showerhead, you can save 40% more water than when using a conventional showerhead.
• You can also save water by multitasking (brushing your teeth or shaving) in the shower.

Keeping a Flawless Faucet

• A conventional bathroom faucet typically runs a little over 2 gallons of water per minute (gpm).
• But new, high – efficient, bluer faucets run at 1.5 gpm or less and can save almost 600 gallons of water a year from running down the drain.
• Bathroom faucets alone count for 16 percent of home water use.
• Wasting water equals wasting energy: Letting the faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb shine for 14 hours.
• Dripping faucets alone can waste around 20 gallons of water a day. If it drips, fix it.
• You can save around 200 gallons a month by simply turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth – that saves more than 3,000 gallons of water a year.
• You can also save around 300 gallons of water a month by shutting off the faucet while shaving your face (or your legs).

If every family in America took a few simple steps, some estimate that one billion gallons of water could be saved each day. Your bluer bathroom begins tomorrow morning, in your home, between you and your reflection. What changes can you make?
Information in this section is taken from the EPA (WaterSense) and Water – Use it Wisely.