Save Money By Saving Water

I live in California, which is experiencing in major drought, and so I would like to be minimizing my water usage and hopefully saving myself a pretty penny at the same time. Sure, the water bill isn’t that great, but it’s more when you add in the cost of heating the water too, which gets used for the shower, dishwasher and washing machine at least. Here are some keep steps that can potentially reduce your water and heating consumption:

1) Insulate your Water Heater.

Especially effective in colder climes, wrapping your water heater can be a relatively cheap way to effectively reduce your costs of heating water by close to 10% and probably saving the cost of the wrapping within the first year (and likely extending the life of the water heater).

2) Turn Down the Water Heater.

Your likely have the water heater settings quite high, and lower this a little, could again lower your costs by up to 5%. As well as having multiple settings, there is a useful feature called vacation mode that significantly lowers the heating levels of the water to save you some money. 

3) Buy a Low Flow Showerhead.

Installing a low flow showerhead, one that uses 2-2.5 gallons per minute can cut your shower water usage in half, saving 1000s of gallons of water for a typical sized family that may amount to $100-200 dollars of saving in a year.

4) Use the Dishwasher

Yes, you have an excuse to be lazy and let the machine do most of the work (OK, so you have to place the dishes in and out of the dishwasher at least). Using the dishwasher is most probably better for the environment and will save a few 10s of dollars a year at least.

5) Use Energy Efficient appliances.

It’s estimates that an energy efficient washing machine can help save you over $500 during their lifetime. Want to save more even more? Wash your clothes on a cold setting, and if it’s warm outside, dry the clothes in the sunshine!

6) Have a Leaky Faucet, Fix it!

Estimates put a leaky faucet at 2,500 gallons of water per year which is likely $40 of wasted money it its hot water, and more to the point, why waste this water and be kinder to the environment.

7) Remove the Lawn.

Keeping your lawn nice a green uses a significant amount of water. Switching to another type covering could be a better way to go, especially those that use little, if any water. If you are not going to walk on it, plants like pachysandra, myrtle, sedum, or creeping lily turf could be good bets, if you are wood chips, bricks, cement, rocks and the such like can be a good bet.

How about you, any thoughts or tips on saving water?