Reduce Your Monthly Water Bills
Three Tips For New Homeowners
If you are someone who has spent a lot of time renting an apartment, you are probably unaware of just how much more water you can use when you own a home. Between the larger water heater, the sprinkler system and the additional potentially runny faucets, you have many more places where your water bill can slowly grow. Fortunately there are some small things that you can do that will make your home more efficient and help to lower your monthly costs.
Low Flow Showerheads
The place where you are most likely to waste water is in your shower. Depending on the number of people you have in your home, you may run the shower half a dozen or more times a day, and each of those showers use gallons upon gallons of water. Traditional shower heads are designed to give a steady stream of high pressure, but recent trends have shown that you can get the same feeling of cleanliness and enjoyment from the shower with a lower flow head. A low flow shower head is a simple installation, and costs under $50 in most cases; however, it will save you upwards of a hundred gallons of water each month.
Drain Your Water Heater
Over time your water heater will start to gain sediment in the bottom. As the pile of sediment grows, you will begin to see a decrease in the efficiency of the water heater, which means you will be wasting water and gas or electricity to keep it going. Draining the water heater every three months or so will keep the sediment from becoming a problem and allow your heater to function at its highest level. It’s also important to have an efficient water heater. It will save you money long term purchasing an efficient water heater over keeping a non efficient water heater.
Upgrade To Efficiency
After you have been in your home for a while, you can start to look at upgrading your home’s appliances to a more efficient model. The Energy Star rated appliances are specifically designed to meet government standards with regards to utility usage. Washing machines and water heaters are two of the first appliances that you should upgrade, as they use both water and electricity to operate. You might even want to look into a tankless water heater for the absolute best efficiency possible.
The transition from renting to owning is a hard one, and it can be easy to be blindsided by the higher utility costs. By doing these simple things, you can start to reduce your monthly utility bills and keep your home as affordable as possible.
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