Water & Energy Savings Tips
Below are some useful tips for reducing your energy consumption and being kind to the environment.
- Repair leaks. Find and fix faucet and toilet leaks right away.
- Wash full loads of laundry and dishes to save water, energy and time. Research shows that many people under-fill their clothes washer by 30%. Try adding a few more items to the load and see if you’re satisfied with the results.
- Reduce shower flow. Install water-efficient showerheads and shorten your showers by a minute or two and save up to 1,800 gallons per person each year. Water-saving showerheads meet the criteria of 2.0 gallons of water usage per minute or less.
- Reduce faucet flow. Avoid letting the water run when brushing teeth, washing dishes, or shaving. Installing faucet aerators will save even more.
- Install a low flush toilet. Toilets installed before 1994 are water wasters using 3.5 to 5 gallons per flush. New toilets only use 1.6 gallons per flush.
- Improve landscape watering practices. If you water the lawn, water only once or twice per week for most soils, and no more than an inch per week. Take recent rainfall into account when watering. For planting beds, use drip irrigation such as soaker hoses instead of sprinklers.
- Set your water heater’s thermostat to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Lowering it from a higher setting will save you money and reduce the risk of being scalded.
- Lower your home’s thermostat at bedtime or while you’re away during the day. Setting the thermostat to 58 degrees during these times could reduce your heating bill by up to seven percent. Install a programmable thermostat for home heating. It can save a lot of energy while you’re sleeping or away from home — and will re-warm your house shortly before you wake up or return home.
- Thoroughly pre-rinsing dishes may be unecessary. Most new dishwashers do not require pre-rinsing.
- Weatherize your home by sealing leaky drafts around doors and windows with weather-stripping, caulking, and door sweeps.
- Purchase a premium-efficiency ENERGY STAR® qualified furnace, clothes washer, refrigerator, dishwasher and high-efficiency water heaters when it’s time to replace worn-out models.
- Replace incandescent bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs). CFLs use about 75% less energy than standard incandescent bulbs, last up to 10 times longer and can save more than $40 in electricity over their lifetime.
