Ways to save water

Climate change or not, water is fast becoming a constrained resource. It's also becoming an expensive resource! Look at your water bill if you don't believe me.

How can you save water and money at the same time? Try these steps:

1) Add low flow aerators to your faucets. Inexpensive and easy to do.

2) Add a water-filled bottle to your toilet's water tank. This reduces the amount of water per flush.

3) Better yet replace your toilet with a 1.28 gallon per flush unit. It will flush better than a toilet using the water bottle trick and may even improve your home's value. I'm using an American Standard Compact Cadet 3 FloWise unit. It works a treat and is on the EPA's WaterSense list.

4) Here's a possible fourth item. A faucet hot water heater. It should definitely save water, but what about the energy use? Any comments?

Other "green projects" for the holidays ...

While waiting for the solar power install the Clugston's haven't been idle on greening our household. Sandy and I took advantage of the deep cuts in appliance prices to buy a new refrigerator. Of course it's Energy Star compliant. In fact any refrigerator over 10 years old is probably not using power efficiently! It's a shame I won't have the time to test the old refrigerator against the new one with a "Kill-a-Watt" watt meter. The comparison would be interesting :-)

The other green project was replacing high flow faucets and shower heads with low flow units. This is an easy and inexpensive project. And you save on both water heating and water usage costs. You also reduce your carbon footprint as well (less natural gas burned).