Green Renovate Friday

Lets Talk the Bathroom.

Last week I mentioned the water limiting aerator as one way to help control the amount of water you consume. Lets continue in the water consumption area and finish off the bathroom.

Barry from An Explorer's View of Life ( a wonderful blog you should go check it out), left a comment last week about his low flow shower head. Did you know a that if you take a 10-minute shower you using a regular shower head then you are letting between 25 and 50 gallons of water head down the drain? Most normal high-flow shower heads use between 6 to 10 gpm. A low flow shower head have a flow of about 1.75 gpm and use 30 percent less water.

Now if you want to spend less money and still want to save water then try one of these:

This is an in line shower shutoff valve after you get yourself all wet you push the little button and it shuts the water off. Then you soap up, get all clean then push the little button to turn the water back on. These are great because there is no need to mess with the knobs while you have soap all over your face just one button to push.

Now of course the best water saving option would be to use a combination of both. Low flow to get wet turn it off when you soap up the low flow to rinse off, for Maximum water conservation.

Now onto the toilet. A regular toilet flushes about 3.5 gallons of water each time you hit the handle. There are several options when going for less water usage when you flush. If you upgrade to a water saving toilets you will only use about 1.6 gallons of water each time you flush saving a little more then half the normal water used. There is also the Dual Flush toilet which offers more or less water usage depending on... "ahem...." what you are doing. .8gal for liquid wastes and 1.6gal for the ....ummmm ..... poop.

There is also the low tech option for those who's situation warrants a less costly or less permanent option (like those who are renting their homes). Take a half gallon plastic milk jug or a clean brick and place it in the tank away from any moving parts. This will displace some of the water which will shut off the fill valve sooner helping you use less water.