Lower Your Water Bill With These Tips
A water bill can easily drip away your hard-earned savings if you’re not paying attention. Saving on your water bill isn’t just the green living thing to do; it also saves you money. Reducing your water usage can be simple and painless.
Unlike your electric bill, gas bill or trash bill, your water bill can silently leak away dollars for years and even months without causing obvious problems. A runaway water bill also can cause serious problems for your apartment manager because water leaks can destroy many features of your apartment and possibly cause the growth of dangerous molds.
In short, be aware of your water bill and take some steps to reduce your water usage. Your wallet will thank you for it.
Water Bill Tips
Ready to get saving? Here’s how:
- Check for a toilet leak. Put a little bit of dye or food coloring in the toilet tank and come back in a half-hour. If the color appears in the bowl, you have a toilet leak that is literally flushing water down the drain. To reduce the drain on your water bill, fix the leak or talk to apartment maintenance. Many toilet repairs are easy and inexpensive. Often the problem is just an ill-fitting rubber flapper. If you think your flapper might be killing your water bill, just turn off the water supply valve for the toilet and take the old flapper to your local home improvement store.
- Beef up your toilet tank. If you don’t have a low-flow toilet, reduce the amount of water you use for each flush by weighing down a few drinking water bottles and putting them in the tank. If you have at least three gallons in the tank (as opposed to four or five), you’ll get clean flushes and save water and money on every flush.
- Use low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators. These handy water-saving devices maintain the pressure of your water outlets while using less water to do it. An aerator can really make a huge difference to your water bill. Some water utility companies will give you these parts for free – call the number on your water bill and ask.
- Take shorter showers. Not only will quicker showers save on your water bill, but they’ll reduce the amount you spend on gas or electricity to heat that water. You can try turning the water off while soaping up and turning it back on to rinse.
- Don’t run the water when brushing your teeth. Your water bill takes a dousing when you blast water while brushing.
- Don’t use your toilet as a trashcan. Reduce your water bill charges by using your bathroom trashcan for tissues, cigarette butts and other trash.
- Don’t use running water on a razor. After you shave, just pour some water in a cup and stir vigorously to clean the razor. Opening the taps on your razor is a good way to run up your bill.
- Only run laundry and the dishwasher when you have a full load. Many small loads hit your water bill – and your electric/gas bill, because of the energy needed to heat water – a lot harder than a handful of big loads.
- When you rinse dishes, don’t leave the tap open. Instead, fill a sink basin or plastic basin with rinse water. If you don’t have the space, just put the soapy dishes on a dish rack and then rinse them with a spray hose or pan full of water.
How Much Daily Wear Do You Put On Your Water Bill?
A gallon is a fair amount of water. If you had to drink a gallon in an hour, you probably would have trouble doing it. So how much water do you use in a typical day? Ten gallons? Fifteen? If you’re like the average North American, statistics say that you use fifty to seventy gallons every single day.
Most of that water bill abuse happens in the bathroom – about 75%. The toilet itself runs up 28% of water bill damage.
It doesn’t take much to get your water bill under control. Try these tips – hopefully your next water bill will bring good news!
