{"id":808093,"date":"2020-06-04T15:44:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T21:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=384477"},"modified":"2020-06-04T15:44:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T21:44:04","slug":"ask-eartha-how-to-save-water-and-money-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/ask-eartha-how-to-save-water-and-money-at-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Eartha: How to save water (and money) at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Eartha,<\/em>
My friends just remodeled their bathroom and upgraded to a low-flow toilet. Does that really have an impact?<\/em><\/p>\n

On average in the United States, water from the tap, toilet, dishwasher and other appliances adds up to about 138 gallons per household per day. That\u2019s roughly 60 gallons per person per day, and it\u2019s all based on data from the Water Footprint Calculator. Breaking this down further, we find that much of the daily water use occurs in the bathroom with about 64% used by toilets, taps and shower heads.<\/p>\n

Based on the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s WaterSense data, leaky toilets, faucets and appliances account for more than 1 trillion gallons of wasted water each year, equal to the annual household water use of 11 million homes. Simply upgrading an old toilet to a low-flow model can save upward of 13,000 gallons of water annually for the average family. This is an easy way to save on your water bill each month and usually requires a plumber to install new toilets and properly address any leaks that might exist with your fixtures.<\/p>\n

Saving water can help reduce the impacts of drought<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reporting done by NPR shows the growing demand for access to clean water in the mountain west is stressing local watersheds that are already facing persistent drought conditions. Although the intensity and location of droughts fluctuate each year, Colorado\u2019s temperature has increased by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit from 1977-2006, according to multiple independent studies. This leads to less annual precipitation and spring snowpacks melting faster, which leads to less water in our rivers and lakes throughout the year.<\/p>\n

Currently, Summit County is rated abnormally dry by the United States Drought Monitor. Even though this winter saw average snowfall levels, a dry and warm April pushed us into early drought levels. And we are not alone: Nearly 76% of Colorado is experiencing drought conditions with 11% under extreme drought conditions.<\/p>\n

Installing water-saving toilets, faucets, shower heads, dishwashers and washing machines can help use less water in our homes and can help reduce the severity of drought in our communities and set a standard for future generations who will be the ones managing a very different water landscape than we live in today.<\/p>\n

Make the switch<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fortunately, saving water around the house is easier than ever before. Switching to water-saving fixtures and appliances can\u00a0reduce\u00a0indoor water use\u00a0by 20%. The Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s\u00a0WaterSense website\u00a0lists many water-saving products and the Department of Energy\u2019s\u00a0Energy Star label\u00a0also has an extensive list of energy- and water-saving appliances, like dishwashers and washing machines.<\/p>\n

Newer dishwashers and clothes washers use water much more efficiently than older models. Water-efficient\u00a0dishwashers\u00a0save more than 5,000 gallons of water per year compared with washing dishes by hand (and use less than half the energy, too). Newer\u00a0washing machines\u00a0handle much bigger loads of clothing with much less water. A full-sized Energy Star-certified clothes washer uses 13 gallons of water per load, compared to the 23 gallons used by a standard machine, saving over 3,000 gallons of water per year.<\/p>\n

Likewise, newer bathroom fixtures and appliances like toilets, shower heads and faucets are designed to be more water-efficient than older models and can save hundreds of gallons a month. The WaterSense line of bathroom products passes strict criteria for flow and quality control so you don\u2019t need to worry about trading performance for efficiency. For example, older toilets use up to six gallons per flush, whereas\u00a0WaterSense toilets use 1.28 gallons per flush or less. Likewise, older shower heads flow well over the\u00a0federal limit of 2.5 gallons per minute, while\u00a0WaterSense models\u00a0can flow no higher than 2 gallons per minute.<\/p>\n

If you are a customer of Breckenridge, Frisco or Dillon water providers and need help making the switch to a low-flow lifestyle, then sign up for Tame the Tap, and experts from the High Country Conservation Center will schedule a physically distanced indoor water assessment. They will check your bathroom fixtures for leaks and can provide low-flow faucet aerators and shower heads on the spot \u2014\u00a0all free of charge. And if you\u2019ve been considering an upgrade, they have rebates up to $100 \u2014 Frisco residents have additional rebates available \u2014 to use toward specific WaterSense and Energy Star appliances and fixtures. You can visit HighCountryConservation.org<\/a> for more info as well as sign up for an indoor water assessment.<\/p>\n

Ask Eartha Steward is written by the staff at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to waste reduction and resource conservation. Submit questions to Eartha at info@highcountryconservation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Eartha,My friends just remodeled their bathroom and upgraded to a low-flow toilet. Does that really have an impact? On average in the United States, water from the tap, toilet, dishwasher and other appliances adds up to about 138 gallons per household per day. That\u2019s roughly 60 gallons per person per day, and it\u2019s all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-808093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-07 05:32:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}