How Can A Plumber Make Your Home Plumbing More Sustainable? | Bedford, TX

A lot of people are spending their free time looking at ways to make their homes more sustainable. Sustainable homes offer several benefits to homeowners while also benefiting the environment. By reducing your household water consumption you will reduce how much you pay in water bills each month, and you will also reduce your water usage which improves the environment. Believe it or not, if you are looking for ways to make your home more sustainable your local Bedford, TX plumber may be the one to contact.

A plumber can take a look at your entire plumbing system and identify areas that may not be as up-to-date as others and suggest slight adjustments that will make your home more sustainable. Believe it or not, sustainable plumbing can allow you to save a great deal of money in the long term. Keep in mind that your water heater alone is usually responsible for around 20% of the energy consumption in your home. So doing something as simple as having a professional tune-up your water heater or upgrade it to a newer model can make a tremendous difference in how much energy your home consumes. In fact, you might be surprised where other weak areas in your home are located.

Meet the EPA WaterSense Program

One of the best things you can do if you want to create a more sustainable home, outside of consulting a plumber, is to learn about the WaterSense Program provided by the EPA. The WaterSense Program outlines minimum levels of efficiency and performance and ensures that all services or labels that contain its watermark are extremely energy-efficient. In fact, in order to obtain the watermark, the product must use 20% more than comparable products which makes WaterSense appliances and other plumbing goods highly desirable. If your plumber is supplying a product such as a water heater to you, then you need to directly ask him or her if it has this label.

Appliances That Should Carry the WaterSense Label

While you cannot optimize everything in your plumbing system (although as plumbers we sure wish we could) there are a few major household appliances that should carry the WaterSense label. These home items utilize more water than other simple fixtures in your home and can also waste large amounts of water. The products that carry the WaterSense label should have extra safeguards in place to prevent leaking and help reduce energy consumption overall.

To start, consider installing a toilet that has the WaterSense approval on it. There is a good chance that your home toilet is using anywhere from three to five gallons of water every time you flush it. If you have an older toilet in your home, it may even be wasting even more water. Your plumber should be able to give you a better idea of what your toilet consumes. On the flip side, a toilet that has been rated and approved by the WaterSense Program only uses 1.28 gallons of water each flush which is substantially less.

Another great way to reduce your water usage is by talking with your Bedford, TX professional about changing the faucets in your home. Not only can a simple leak from a faucet waste thousands of gallons of water per year, but it can cost you a great deal of money. Faucets that are energy-rated are less likely to leak and they use a lot less water compared to standard models. There are a lot of faucets in a standard home, so updating them all is a fantastic way to reduce your water usage almost instantly.

Finally, the other majorly wasteful item in your home is probably your showerhead. The average showerhead uses 2.5 to 3 gallons of water every minute. While it may feel good streaming down your back, a majority of that is just going straight down the drain. That is a massive amount of water to waste on a continual basis. A properly rated showerhead reduces your usage to at least if not less than 2 gallons of water per minute. This one small adjustment can therefore reduce your water use and let you feel a little bit better on those days you decide to opt for a long relaxing shower.

Consider a Tankless Water Heater

If your water heater is over ten years old, then a plumber might suggest upgrading. This not only will help you reduce your water usage, but will also save you money. As one of the top energy-consuming items in your home, an old water heater will consume much more energy than it should be. Simply buying a new water heater that is highly rated from your local plumber will immediately drop how much you pay in energy costs, but if you are really serious about reducing the water consumption in your home you may want to ask your plumber about a tankless model instead.

Traditional water heaters store water and then heat it up, but tankless water heaters only heat water on demand which leads to a lot less energy loss. Instead of running constantly, a tankless water heater only runs when you actually need hot water which will drastically reduce the amount of energy consumed in your home. The downside is they cost more than their traditional counterparts, but the amount you save should help offset those costs.

Are you ready to make your home more sustainable? If you are looking for help look no farther than Tioga Plumbing & Electric. We are happy to send someone out to evaluate your home and see what changes could be made to improve your daily water usage. We make it easy to be environmentally conscious without sacrificing convenience in your home.

Photo By Hispanolistic at istock