10 Ways To Reduce Your Water Bill And Conserve Water

You can’t live without water — you need it to survive. But you know what you can survive without? High water bills.

If you’re not being smart about your water usage, you’ll have to watch some of your money go straight down the drain unnecessarily. You’ll be working hours at your job each month to pay for water usage that you don’t need.

Instead of trading hours of our lives, we can educate ourselves and become savvy about our water usage.

What Causes High Water Bills?

1. Dripping Faucets

It’s crazy that you might be paying for water you’ll never use. But it’s surprisingly common. When many of us see a dripping faucet, we don’t get overly concerned about it, but we should.

It wastes so much water, which isn’t good for our planet. And it also wastes our money if we have water meters in our homes. Even a slow drip of only 10 drips every minute will lead to a loss of 350 gallons a year (3).

A fast leak can waste many times that amount.

2. Swimming Pools Overflowing

Some people love to have swimming pools in their backyards. They take a lot of water to fill, with a 12-foot by 24-foot pool with a 4-foot depth requiring 8,600 gallons.

If you fill your pool right to the top, you’re going to lose a lot of water as some of it will be splashed when people get in the pool. Filling it slightly lower will reduce water bills because you won’t be losing that water to splashing.

3. Leaking Or Continually Running Toilets

Toilets use more than a quarter of the water your home goes through every day (4). With so much water cycling through those things, it’s easy to see how a leaky toilet would waste a lot of water and drive up your bill. A toilet leak can waste up to 300 gallons of water per day (5).

If you notice your toilet leaking, check your flush valve system. The flapper at the tank’s bottom should make a watertight seal. If it doesn’t, the water will begin to leak into the toilet bowl.

While it’s an easy fix, it can be hard to tell if you have a leak because it’s silent. If your leak isn’t fixed after replacing the flush valve system, check for fill valve issues.

4. Lawn Care

If you have spent a lot of money on landscaping, you might want to water your yard to keep all those plants alive. But consider how much you need to water everything — you don’t need to overdo it.

Pay attention to when you’re watering your yard. It’s best to do it between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. before the day gets too hot. You’ll have less evaporation that way.

If you’re not getting at least an inch a week of rain water, you can start watering. But if you’ve had rainfall and your yard still looks healthy, skip it if you can. It takes more than 62 gallons to give a 10-foot by 10-foot area of yard space an inch of water.

5. Water Heater Wait Time

You might be using more water than you have to, just waiting for your hot water to kick in. If it takes longer than you think it should to get your hot water running through your pipes, check there’s enough insulation around the pipes. A lack of proper insulation means you have to run more water as you wait.

While waiting for just a minute to warm up the water for a shower, you might use two gallons you’ll have to pay for.

6. Washing Cars At Home

You might have heard that it’s cheaper to wash cars at home rather than using a car wash. While you might part with a few dollars at the car wash, you could potentially pay more at home. If you leave the hose running while you wash and you have a meter, you’re going to pay for that water usage.

A commercial car wash may only use 30 gallons of water for each car washed there (6). If you run a hose the whole time you’re washing your car at home, at around the four-minute mark, you’ll use 30 gallons. Plus, you’ll have to pay for the cleaning supplies, while you won’t at a car wash.

It may be cheaper to leave it to the professionals. If you want to do it at home though, go old school and use a bucket and a sponge to cut costs.

7. Changes In Seasons

Be aware that you use more water in the summer, so you can be vigilant about ways to cut down. In the winter, you won’t usually be watering your garden. If you have a backyard pool, you won’t be filling it.

Summer tends to be a higher-usage time, partly because we do more with our yards and because it’s hotter. Remember to water your yard and plants during early morning hours to cut down on water usage.

Because you’ll often be spending more time indoors in the winter and you might be cold, keep an eye out for longer showers. If you want to warm up, try adding an extra blanket instead of taking a daily hot bath or long shower.

8. Socializing

Are you a social butterfly who tends to throw parties or have visitors come to stay overnight? That’s great for your mental health, but not so wonderful for your wallet.

Having guests over for parties can result in a lot more toilet flushes than you would typically have during an evening. Each toilet flush can use anywhere from 1.6 to 5 gallons, depending on how old the toilet is (7). Overnight guests take showers and may do laundry, which will drive up your water bill.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have guests, but if you’re struggling with your bill, it’s a good place to start. Maybe you can let your friends throw a party occasionally instead of always hosting.

9. Water Softener Constantly Running

If you use a water softener, how much water it will take to run will depend on the size and the make. But a continuously running softener will drive up your bill considerably. If you suspect your softener is running continuously, have it looked at.

10. Underground Pipe Leaks

Underground pipe leaks can waste gallons of water per minute if the leak is fast enough. But since it’s underground, how can you tell if you have a leak? Here are some ways:

Areas of soil near your house that are soupy or extremely watery.
Higher than normal water bills with no apparent cause.
Water or moisture in your basement.
Less water pressure than normal.

If you find a leak, you need to shore it up as soon as possible. It can cost a small fortune if it’s a severe one. A 1/4 inch leak can waste 15,226 gallons per day (8).

11. Broken Water Meter

If you see a huge water bill and you haven’t changed your usage, you might have a broken meter. To figure out if you have a broken meter, you can turn off your water and check your meter.

If it still shows usage, you should contact your water provider.

For more tips on how to reduce your water bill and save water please visit Sensible Digs