Category: ‘Water Management’

Dual Flush Toilet

September 29, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

25%-30% of the water used in each household is from the flushing of the toilet, and the average toilet uses 3.5 gallons of water per flush. With the objective of saving water, a number of companies have designed and marketed dual flush toilets. These toilets provide two flush options of different sized portions, thus enabling the user to decide which amount is necessary to clear the bowl. The half flush option as the name suggests saves water by not releasing a full flush. Utilizing a dual flush toilet can cut back on total water usage by 10-15% depending on the maximum capacity of the unit amounting on average to water savings of nearly 12,000 gallons per year. Conversion kits are available that provide the two flushing options for your existing toilet, this is also a great way to recycle the fitting that you already possess. A new dual flush toilet will cost from $200-$350 and conversion kits for existing toilets will cost around $50

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Categories: Efficient Fittings, Green Management, Water Management

Hot Water Circulators

September 26, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

Have you ever thought about the amount of water wasted when you turn on a tap and wait for the water coming out to be hot? This happens due to the stagnant water in the pipeline loosing heat from conduction and becoming cold. The amount of water lost by waiting for the flow to come through the pipeline can be numerous gallons. By installing a hot water circulator you can eliminate this waste of water by having hot water available at your demand.

Hot water circulator’s run the water through your pipeline to keep hot water available at all times, they run on very low wattage so they are cheap to run (as little as a few cents per day), and are very easy/quick to install. They also frequently are available with 24 hour programmable timers so they only operate at hours when you potentially need them to further cutting down on the energy cost. In general, hot water circulators cost between $100-$400, and save the average household 16,000 gallons of water per year which means they generally pay themselves off within the year.

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Categories: Efficient Fittings, Water Management

Brick in toilet tank

September 22, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

25%-30% of the water usage in each household is from the toilet, and the average toilet uses 3.5 gallons of water per flush. In a different post we discuss the market of water saving toilets that use less water per flush, but here we talk of two ideas to reduce the amount of water your current toilet uses by placing either bricks or water bottles in the water tank.

How much water your toilet tank holds will dictate the size of or amount of void space you can include with either a brick or water bottle, and considering that the most efficient of toilets get as low as 1.5 gallons per flush, it is conceivable to fill 2 gallons worth of space (If you have the 3.5 tank). Having said that, it is advisable to test out your system a few times with different sizes to check the system is still efficient at passing on waste :)

This should be quite a simple task the costs nothing assuming you have an old brick lying around and can recycle a water bottle (a bit of sand or small rocks in the bottle will aid in sinking it) and can potentially reduce your water bill by 15%.

 

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Categories: Quick/Easy Green Project, Recycling Opportunities, Water Management

Shower & Faucet Aerators

September 16, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

The average American uses between 40 – 80 Gallons of water each day and over half of that is with running

water from the  Faucet and Shower. Standard faucet aerators will allow flow rates of 2.5 – 5 gallons of water per minute and bathroom low-flow aerators attachments deliver 0.5 to 1 gallon of water per minute whilst emitting a similar force of spray with an even spray pattern. These same figures are applicable to the shower head fixtures

They can take anywhere from 1 to 20mins to install and cost from $1-$30 making it one of the easiest and cheapest things to do to manage your water usage at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Categories: Efficient Fittings, Quick/Easy Green Project, Water Management

Water Filters

September 15, 2011 Posted by Tlittle

An estimate of 200 Billion bottles of water are consumed annually and the US market makes up

around 25% of that. The Bottled water industry has developed dramatically over the past 30 years and in that time come under huge scrutiny due to the negative environmental effects of packaging and transportation as well as the impacts of production through groundwater extraction.

 

Installing a water filtration system in the house  will eliminate or greatly reduce the dependency on bottled water. Filtration  systems range in price from around $20-$200 a water filtration system and can be very easy to install.  Add that price to the cost of tap water being just 5% of the average bottled water price and it makes sense to install one. Some products attach onto the end of the faucets and others are installed in the plumbing. 

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Categories: Quick/Easy Green Project, Water Management