Making Your Bathroom Water Wise

Did you know the bathroom can be one of the biggest water users in your home? But, if you can manage the way your water flows, you can use less, save a lot, and keep your bathroom nice and green.

First, find and repair any leaks in your bathroom. Although they are usually very cheap and easy to fix, these simple problems can waste a lot of water and money if they are not fixed. Be sure to check your faucets, pipes, and especially your toilet. Toilet leaks are often silent and hard to spot. The best way to check your toilet for a leak is to drip a bit of food coloring into the tank of your toilet. If it changes the color of the water in the bowl in less than 20 minutes, you have a toilet leak.

If your bathroom is leak-free and you want to take it to the next step of green, consider installing aerators for your faucets and low-flow shower heads. These additions don’t cost much, and they are easy to install. Bathroom faucets should have an output of one gallon of water per minute or less. When shopping for a shower head, remember to get a model with enough water pressure to rinse easily, otherwise you will waste water on extra scrubbing.

Also, consider the type of toilet you have. Toilets installed before 1994 can use up to seven times more water than modern models. Check your toilet for a mark that gives its flush volume. This will usually be displayed as GPF (gallons per flush) or GPL (gallons per liter). The lower the number, the better – with less than 2 GPF being ideal. This may be the most expensive green adjustment to your bathroom, but is one of the cheapest green replacements you can make to your home overall. Most toilets sell for about $150 or less, so if you are replacing a particularly inefficient model, you can make the money in water savings relatively quickly.

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Making Your Bathroom Water Wise