Our Most Precious Resource – Water

Did you know that on our planet, the water that is useable to us is only around 1% of freshwater?  The rest of the water is saline, salt water or trapped within glaciers and snowfields making it unusable.

As the world’s population continues to grow, our water available for use remains the same; leaving our important resource in jeopardy.  Do we need to ask ourselves “where is the water being used the most within the home?”  “How am I able to cut back on our water usage?”

In an average home, you will use approximately 300 gallons of water a day — showering, washing hands, teeth brushing,  flushing toilets, and washing clothes.

How many of you are guilty of running the water as you brush your teeth or letting the water run until it heats up enough to wash your face?  Just opening a tap and having the water flow for 1 minute can waste a gallon or 2 of water.  The simple solutions are turning the water off and only using what you need.

Showering accounts for 17% of the water use in the home. Regular showerheads will use around 5 gallons of water a minute.  Merely changing a showerhead to one that is approved by the EPA and labeled WaterSense can help save money and gallons of water from being wasted.  Shortening your shower by one minute can save around 2,900 gallons of water a year.

Toilets come in at a whopping 30% of indoor water consumption.  Older toilets use up to 6 gallons of water to flush.  The newer low flow toilets only use 1.6 gallons.  That is a significant saving on the water bill; around $110 a year you get back just for choosing a water saving toilet.

Washing machines are another appliance within the home that consumes large quantities of water, around 40%.  Older washers used up to 45 gallons of water.  Today we have high-efficiency washers available to us.  They will not only save on electricity, but it also drops the water consumption to 14 to 25 gallons.

Just by merely changing a few things within the home can help save our planets most precious resource.