As you may know from personal experience, running a household costs money. Many homeowners look for any and every opportunity to lower operating costs such as energy bills, water bills, and repair expenses. Your plumbing equipment can play a major positive or negative role in your attempts to stick to your monthly budget.
If you struggle to cover mounting utility bills and expensive repairs in today’s economic environment, know what you can do to make your plumbing system use water and power more efficiently. Give serious thought to the following four steps toward more efficient and cost-effective home plumbing.
1. Invest in Low-Flow Toilets
Traditional toilets that use several gallons of water per flush may provide satisfying results, but they do so at unnecessary expense. These appliances, while relatively inexpensive to install, can add significantly to your monthly water bills. If you want to reduce your utility costs, consider replacing that old-fashioned toilet with a low-flow alternative.
Low-flow toilets use a mere 1.28 to 1.6 gallons of water per flush, as opposed to old-style toilets that can require up to seven gallons. This greater efficiency can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars in savings over the operational life of the toilet. Some advanced models even offer an extra-low flow option for liquid waste.
As tempting as these benefits may sound, you shouldn’t buy a low-flow toilet until your plumber has verified that your pipes are in good condition. Deteriorating sewer lines can cause friction which slows the waste and lets the water go causing a clog. If you own an older home, for instance, your plumber may need to make some modifications to the pipes before installing the new toilet.
2. Replace Traditional Showerheads With Low-Flow Models
Just as low-flow toilets can help you save water, so can low-flow showerheads. A typical shower uses a lot of water, which can make a significant impact on your water bill depending on how many showers your family members take. Decades-old showerheads in older homes feature a powerful but wasteful flow rate.
Low-flow showerheads use less water per shower than their older cousins without losing their ability to get you thoroughly clean. Some boost their cleaning power by supplementing the water stream with air, a technique called aeration. Others feature a laminar-flow design that shoots multiple, separate streams of water.
3. Update Your Water Heater
Old water heaters can sabotage your plumbing system’s efficiency. A conventional tank-based water heater may lose its heating power as minerals collect within it, forcing you to use more energy to get hot water. Even when this type of water heater escapes lime scale buildup, it can’t offer the energy efficiency of newer models.
Ask your plumbing specialist to recommend the right type of energy-efficient water heater as a replacement for your current model. A tankless water heater, which heats small amounts of water on demand, can reduce energy costs by 34 percent. A heat-pump water heater offers up to three times the efficiency of a conventional unit.
4. Schedule Regular Plumbing Inspections
Your home can waste water without you even realizing it if a leak has developed in any of the pipes or lines. A leaky sewer line can cause raw sewage to leak into the walls or crawl space, forcing you to run your appliances harder while leaching water into your yard. A leak inside your home can do expensive damage while also increasing your water usage.
You can steer clear of these pricey inefficiencies by scheduling regular maintenance inspections with your plumber. Technicians can check your sewer line by running a camera-equipped cable through it and looking for cracks or clogs. Evaluations of your interior pipes enable technicians to address tiny leaks before they can worsen.
If you want to make a fresh financial start with a more efficient residential plumbing system, turn to the professionals at Spartan Plumbing Inc. Our technicians can refit your home with more efficient plumbing devices while also catching costly problems in their early stages. Contact us today or book a service call online.
