Why You Should Conserve Water & How to Do It

Why should you be concerned with saving water? After all, the earth has the same amount of water on it that it did billions of years ago. True, however, that water is not always accessible. 98% of our water is in oceans, , leaving only .5 of the water on earth accessible to people and animals for drinking. The U.S.


1) Low flow faucet aerators. This is the easiest way to cut back on water consumption. There should be aerators already on all of your sinks, and they control how much water comes out of your faucet.

Kitchen sinks require a slightly higher GPM, usually around 1.5-2.2 for low-flow. You still want to cut back on the water used for simple dish and hand washing, so by all means get a lower-flow aerator, but waiting longer to fill up the sink to do dishes, or a pot to boil water on the stove, can be annoying. Same goes for bathtub faucets-- there's no real reason for low-flow in that situation.

2) Low flow showerheads. While it's hard to save water on baths (aside from using a smaller tub), showers are a great place to cut back on water consumption.

3) When you don't need water, turn off that faucet! This should be fairly obvious, but it's easy to forget you have the water running. You don't keep the faucet on while you brush your teeth, or the entire time you're doing the dishes. Use only what you need.

4) Be conscious of your water consumption while bathing. There are loads of ways to reduce water consumption while bathing! Take showers instead of baths, take shorter showers, and don't keep the water running while you're not in the shower (hop in the moment it's hot enough!) I try to do things like washing my face and shaving my legs outside the shower, since I don't need the faucet/shower on constantly during those activities. It's also easier to sit on the edge of the tub to shave your legs with a little pool of water to rinse the razor instead of trying to do it in the shower. It's a small change, but by saving just 5 minutes in the shower, you'll be saving 7.5 gallons of water for a 1.5 GPM low-flow showerhead, and (remember, 2.5 GPM is still lower than most older showerheads).

5) It's okay to use that dishwasher. Energy*Star dishwashers are tough to beat on water consumption, and often only use around 5 gallons of water per load. This is a significant amount of savings compared to washing your dishes by hand.

6) Buy a low-flow, dual flush toilet when the time comes. Flushing your toilet is one of the biggest culprits of wasted water. Toilets made prior to 1980 use 5-7 gallons of water per flush. New toilets According to Niagra Conservation, If a family of four replaced a 3.5-gallon per flush toilet made between 1980 and 1994 with the Niagara Flapperless® 1.6 GPF toilet, they will save 20,805 gallons of water A YEAR! That's a lot of potable water you'd be saving!

Don't want to pay for low-flow aerators and showerheads? If you live in Linn or Black Hawke County, IA, you don't have to! Installing low-flow fixtures is a part of our free weatherization service. We also install CFLs, will caulk your windows, seal your ducts, insulate your outlets, and much more! Click here to sign up for your free weatherization.