plumbing

Did you know that each American uses an average of 88 gallons of water a day at home? According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that’s only one of the many other surprising statistics about America’s water consumption. Wasting water isn’t just detrimental to your wallet, but to the environment as well.

When looking at how much H2O is consumed and used within a household, there’s no secret that water is being wasted at some point or another. However, we’re here to help pinpoint just how you might be wasting water in your home!

How am I wasting water?

  • Leaking Appliances or Pipes: Leaks, in general, are bad. In fact, leaks can increase your water bill, but also have a significant impact on how much water you are wasting. If you’re ready for us to pull out the EPA stats again, the average family can waste 180 gallons per week due to leaks. To put that into perspective, that’s just short of a hot tub. Yes, you read that right — a hot tub. To avoid this, it’s really important to stay on top of the leaks within your house; be hyper-aware of them and you’ll save your wallet some extra cash.
  • Running your Appliances When They’re Not Full: Okay, so this one may come as a shock, but it really makes a difference: when you run either your dishwasher or washing machine without a full load in it, you’re actually wasting water. A standard, regular washing machine wastes about 41 gallons (older models, energy-efficient ones waste about 20 gallons) of water a load, whereas a dishwasher uses seven. Now, that’s a big difference, but there’s still a considerable amount of water being wasted if you run these on half loads. The best thing to do would be to wait until you have full (not overly full) loads.
  • Having an Old Toilet: Older toilets are more susceptible to clogs and wasting water. When you compare an old toilet to a newer one, an old toilet uses approximately five to seven gallons of water per flush and a newer one uses about 3 gallons. This ranks the toilet as number one in a contest of which appliance wastes the most water. If you can’t afford to upgrade your toilet, avoid wasting water by not unnecessarily flushing things down the toilet.

If you have a leak and can’t DIY…

If you notice a leak in one of your appliances, our team of professionals at Bobby L Greene Plumbing, Heating & Cooling Co. are here to help! Call us at 318-731-9447.

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