Benefits from Water Conservation

water use accounts for about twelve percent of the energy used in the average home this adds up to 300 to 500 dollars per year in water heating costs we can reduce energy bills by reducing our water use especially water that must be heated for cooking and washing let's take a look at how water conservation saved money and provided other benefits for one home in central Pennsylvania built in the late 1980s this home is served by a private water well so no water meter was installed to estimate their water use the homeowners conducted a water audit using a worksheet available from penn state cooperative extension's water conservation website the audit showed that their family of four was using about two hundred and fifty four gallons of water each day or about sixty four gallons per person per day during droughts the family had to drastically change their water use habits to prevent their well from going dry during wet weather they also worried about their septic system being able to accept and treat all of the wastewater from the home the family was interested in addressing these nagging problems and also reducing their energy costs related to water use in the home they decided to add some inexpensive water conserving devices quickly and replace larger water using appliances with more deficient ones as they were out the four faucets and two showerheads in the home were the easiest and first changes to be made for just a few dollars low-flow faucet aerators and shower heads were installed to cut water use by about fifty percent saving nearly 20,000 gallons of water per year since much of this water was heated the water savings translated into about a hundred and sixty dollars of savings in reduced water heating the original toilets in the home all used about four gallons of water per flush as part of some bathroom upgrades they installed 1.6 gallon per flush toilets in all three bathrooms their water audit worksheet estimated that this saved over seventeen thousand gallons of water each year which greatly reduced the stress on their septic system in the past few years the family's old top-loading closed washer and dishwasher both were out and needed replacement the old clothes washer that used over 50 gallons of water per low was replaced with a new front loading model that uses just 27 gallons per load the old dishwasher was replaced with a more efficient model and included a water miser setting to save water combined these two appliance upgrades saved about 12,000 gallons of water per year more importantly these savings were mostly hot water which translated into about a hundred dollars per year of reduced energy costs the combined water conservation measures in this home resulted in about 50,000 gallons less water used each year about forty percent less water than when they first moved in the total cost for all the water conservation devices installed in the house was approximately two thousand dollars but only about nine hundred dollars of these costs were above and beyond what would have been needed as part of normal appliance and fixture replacement costs the additional costs are recovered in just over three years since they resulted in about two hundred and fifty dollars of yearly energy savings if this home would have been connected to a public water supply the family would have saved another two hundred and fifty dollars per year on their water bills making cost recovery period less than two years fifty thousand gallons of reduced water use helped his family better deal with dry spells and droughts in fact water conservation can help anyone who has a low yielding well or spring that struggles to provide enough water for home use the septic system benefits were even more obvious while water conservation doesn't reduce the need to pump the septic tank since the same amount of solids are still being delivered to the subject tank it did reduce the wastewater load to the tank which will reduce the likelihood of hydraulic overload to the system wastewater fluid overloads are a common cause of septic system malfunctions that result in surface ponding of wastewater odors and costly repairs in this case the lower hydraulic load was reduced by about forty percent or 50,000 gallons per year enough to solve the nagging septic system malfunctions by instituting a long-term plan of replacing worn-out water appliances with water saving models and installing simple low-flow faucets and showerheads this family saw the obvious benefits of water conservation reduced energy costs reduce loss of water during dry periods and better functioning of their septic system the costs of the water conserving devices were quickly recovered through reduced water and energy bills they found out that water conservation is truly a you