You may be greening up your cleaning products or your eating habits, but have you stopped to consider your plumbing?
Read the following green plumbing tips from Petri Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
Insulate water pipes: According to GreenBuilding.com, heating water for homes accounts for as much as 30 percent of residential energy consumption. By insulating the pipes and using high-grade pipe insulation, it can lower the energy expenditure needed to heat your water.
Install water saving features: In older homes, plumbing features such as faucets, showerheads and toilets are as historic as the homes themselves. By replacing these dated units with modern, energy-efficient counterparts, you can reduce leaks, conserve water and reduce your energy bill.
– Newer and more efficient toilets can cut down the amount of water used by as much as 80 percent. A low-flow toilet only uses 1.28 gallons of water per flush, whereas a full-flow toilet uses 3.5 gallons per flush. A dual-flush toilet uses only 1.6 gallons for solid waste and only 0.8 gallons for liquid waste. A newer toilet can translate to a potential savings of 10,000 gallons of water each year.
– Install a tankless water heater, which uses much less energy than a standard water heater. Instead of wasting energy keeping a huge reservoir of hot water at all times, a tankless water heater heats the water only as it is needed.- Replacing a traditional showerhead with a low-flow showerhead will reduce the traditional water usage by around 50-70 percent. The homeowner can also install an even greener shower product, the steam shower. While traditional showers use 25 gallons of water per shower, a steam shower uses around 1 gallon of water per shower.
Inspect your home plumbing for leaks: Detecting leaks can be a difficult task, and in some cases, small leaks can be unnoticeable to an untrained homeowner. Hire a professional to help you hunt down hard to spot leaks.
Source: Petri Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
