So far I figure on saving $370 per year in the laundry room without changing my (or my family’s) behavior.
I did this by purchasing a new washer, changing the lights to CFL’s, installing an occupancy sensor to control the lights and hanging my clothes out to dry.
How could I follow the water trail and save even more?
Four people live in my house. The house has 2.5 baths. Better said it has three toilets, one small bathtub with shower, one Jacuzzi tub, one stall shower and four sinks. According to the American Water Works Association my family’s water usage could be as high as the following:
It feels like every plumber and plumbing fixture salesperson I talk to has a different opinion about high efficiency fixture
performance. To dispense with the arguing I looked for an accepted standard to base my savings estimates on and found the
LEED Homes criteria for Very High Efficient Fixtures. These guidelines require:
- bathroom faucets to deliver <=1.5gpm (versus the standard 2.2gpm)
- showers to deliver <=1.75gpm (versus the max allowable by law in the US of 2.5gpm)
- toilets to use <=1.1 gpm. (versus typical 3.5-5.5 gpm).
Since the LEED Homes program started, there has been a huge shift in the plumbing industry that allows fixtures to have high performance with high efficiency. Good engineering and a little incentive can make a huge impact on our lives.
Now, how much can I save following this trail of water without affecting my family’s behavior? No one ever takes a bath at our house so I am going to focus on the faucets, the toilets and the showers.
Looking around the internet, at Home Depot and some plumbing supply houses and talking to folk with LEED homes I chose to install the following:
- Four 1.0 gpm WaterSense rated Neoperl faucet aerators at Home Depot for $4.89 each (for installation instructions see Hand-on-Green: INSTALLING A NEW AERATOR)
- Two 1.6 gpm WaterSense rated Waterpik EcoFlow Showerheads at Home Depot for $29.98 each
- The toilets are too expensive right now so shall be a future project.
My total investment was $79.52. This felt like a lot until, WOW! I see that estimated water consumption is cut 42% – by 14,784 gallons per year.
Given my utility rates, that savings equates to an annual reduction in water costs of $151 and sewer costs of $164 or a total operating savings of $315 per year. Given the $79.52 expenditure there is a three month payback.
Now that is compelling.
