In general, a person will spend more than 182 hours in the bathroom per year. Activities performed in the bathroom may range from showering, using the toilet, brushing their teeth, doing skincare, and other day-to-day routines that can’t be done elsewhere inside the house.

Throughout those hours, people will be using water and electricity in various ways to achieve their end goals. Not to sound technical, but an average American family will use 300 gallons (ca. 1,136 l) of water daily. That’s water that ends up as blackwater that flows through the public sewer systems, and it’s just from one house.

This may not look like a big deal, but once you consider the monetary and environmental costs of your water usage, you might start thinking otherwise. If you want to save money and the environment, then you can look into your local plumbing services to upgrade inefficient fixtures in your bathroom.

In the same manner that a business needs to spend money to earn money, you will need to spend on the upfront costs of upgrades so that you can save money in the long run. You might think that this is counterproductive because it will still cost you money, but time will prove how important making this change is.

Tankless Water Heaters

Usual households use boilers or heaters to supply hot water throughout their home, which can take up a lot of space and energy to remain functional. These mechanisms are continuously working to provide hot water for their homeowners, but the process can be wasteful.

However, upgrading to a tankless water heater can save you money because the water can be instantaneously heated through the pipes if and when you need it. This means that your heater will only use electricity when you need hot water and not continuously anticipating the use as a regular boiler.

Low-flow Showerheads

Daily showers can take a huge toll on your water bill, especially because standard showerheads release 2.5 gallons (ca. 9 liters) of water per minute. That means that even with a quick 10-minute shower, you’re already using 25 gallons (ca. 95 liters) of water, and that’s only the minimum water usage of one person.

By upgrading to a low-flow or ultra-low-flow showerhead, you can immediately cut your household’s water use by half or even more with the same length of time you would use a standard showerhead. Doing so can help you save money and water in the process.

Water-saving Faucets

Brushing your teeth or washing your face and hands throughout the day accounts for the second-highest water use after toilets. Usage can even be higher if you don’t close the tap while you’re brushing your teeth or doing other activities because the water flows continuously.

By choosing to replace your old faucets with water-saving fixtures, you can already conserve 700 gallons (ca. 2,650 l) of water a year. That number alone should be enough to convince you to make the switch, especially if you use your bathroom sink a lot within the day.

Dual-flush Toilets

A traditional toilet uses 3.4 gallons (ca. 13 liters) of water to flush both liquid and solid wastes. This may not seem like much until you realize that people use the toilet more than five times within the day. By using this equation, you’re going to spend more than 17 gallons (ca. 64 liters) of water for flushing alone.

However, if you upgrade your traditional toilet to one that uses a dual-flushing mechanism, which has separate buttons for liquid and solid waste, or even one that has low flow, then you can immediately cut your water use in half. This is because newer toilet models are built for efficiency and to be eco-friendly.

New Pipework

There are cases wherein you’ve switched all your fixtures to water-saving and high-efficiency models, but your water bill is still sky-high. This might be a sign to look at the pipework that runs throughout your household because there may be underlying problems with it, such as leaks or damages.

This can happen to long-standing houses with age-old pipes that accumulated damages due to wear and tear. A simple inspection will allow you to identify if pipes that need to be repaired or replaced, which you should do before the situation becomes even worse than you imagined.

Water and energy conservation may not be on the top of your current list of priorities, but they should be. It is part of your environmental responsibility as an inhabitant of the earth to make sure that you’re not wasting natural resources, especially now that the world is facing alarming rates of global warming. Plus, you get to save money in the process.

Meta title: Bathroom Upgrades that Can Save You Money

Meta desc: An inefficient bathroom is expensive because it uses more water and electricity to function. Find out what you can upgrade to save more money in the long run.