Water Usage
Since your water bills are separate from your energy bill, many people forget how important water usage is to your carbon footprint. Any water that you use in your house, hot or cold, has gone through an extensive and energy intensive filtration process. And once the water goes down your drain it has to be filtered yet again before it can be reused. On top of that, pumping water around your house uses up energy as well. All of which contribute to your carbon footprint and global warming.
The average American will use between 50 and 70 gallons of water every day. Three quarters of that is just in the bathroom. And fully one quarter is used flushing your toilets. A simple way to get better water usage from your toilet is to fill up part of the tank with something so that it doesn’t fill up completely with water each time. This saves a few liters of water with each flush and shouldn’t affect the strength of your toilet. Cut Your Footprint recommends using large pebbles to do this, but be sure to leave room for at least 3 gallons in the tank. Better yet, you can get a new, low volume toilet. Whereas regular toilets use 3-5 gallons per flush, low volume models use only 1-2 gallons, which means big water savings and a big reduction to your carbon footprint.
The next biggest water user in your bathroom is your shower. The obvious step is to take shorter showers. But also consider getting a water saving shower head. This will cut your shower pressure a bit, but will help fight global warming by reducing your carbon footprint. The last water source in your bathroom is your tap. Be sure to turn it off while brushing your teeth. When shaving, try filling up the basin with an inch or two of water and rinsing your razor in the sink instead of leaving the tap on. Just being conscious of when you have the tap on will surely allow you to reduce your carbon footprint by cutting your water usage.
Outside your bathrooms, some of the biggest water users are your dishwasher and washing machines. For both of these, be sure to always run them with full loads. If possible, upgrade to a more efficient model. For more details on how to reduce your carbon footprint from these appliances, see the sections Washing Machines – Getting the Stains out of Your Carbon Footprint, and Dishwasher – Clean up Your Carbon Footprint.
The last spot to reduce your water usage and fight global warming is your kitchen tap. When washing dishes, fill up the basin with warm water instead of leaving the tap running the entire time. Also, leave a pitcher of water in the fridge so you don’t have to let the tap run for a minute every time you want a glass of cold water.
There are also a few home improvements you can do to improve your water usage. First, insulate your water pipes. This will use far less energy to get you hot water and will quickly reduce your carbon footprint. This is very easy to do. Just pick up some pre-slit foam pipe insulation from your local hardware store, then slide it around your water pipes. You get your hot water faster and there is less waste. A win-win situation for you and for the fight against global warming.
Many homes also have small leaks. To test for water leaks, have a look at your water meter, wait for two hours when the water wasn’t used, then check the meter again. If you do have a leak, you should call in a plumber to find and fix it.
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