When you’re thinking about ways to reduce and save on your energy bills—REMEMBER YOUR PLUMBING! Green plumbing has a big impact on how much energy you consume, from the water itself to the energy it takes to heat. Here are tips you can do yourself or with a little help from our experts to make your home or office a greener place—so you save some green in your wallet with green-plumbing products.
Green Plumbing and Energy Reduction
- Unprotected pipes, especially in exterior walls, are responsible for an enormous amount of heat loss, as water flows from your hot water tank to your faucets. Insulating those pipes should significantly cut your energy usage, by keeping water hotter by the time it gets to where you need it, which should save you big on your utility bill.
- If you are remodeling, upgrading or constructing a home and have to install new plumbing, keep pipes out of exterior walls all together to eliminate unnecessary heat loss. Run pipes through insulated and interior spaces instead, where the temperature tends to be better regulated and more consistent.
- Invest in an on-demand hot water pump. Because these appliances send hot water to your fixtures on demand in seconds, unused hot water isn’t sitting in a tank or in your pipes, losing heat. You don’t have to run the water, waiting for it to get warm. You don’t have to pay to keep the hot water you’re not using hot. You reduce energy costs and overall water usage.
- Hot water heaters alone can constitute as much as 15% of your home’s total energy usage. Get a professional to help you do the math to see if a newer, more energy efficient model—traditional tank style or tankless green-plumbing solution makes sense for you.
- Purchase a fitted insulation pad for your water heater tank, so that it doesn’t take as much energy to heat the water and keep it heated.
- Low-flow shower heads can save you an average of 12 gallons per shower—about 44%—and they’re inexpensive and easy to install.
- Installing low-flow water fixtures throughout your home or office can reduce your consumption by about 60%.
- You can also install faucet flow reducers on your current faucets and save about 40% on your water usage.
- You could not flush the toilet every time you use it—OR you could get a low-flush toilet to reduce unnecessary water usage—saving 28 gallons per person every day. Newer models are cheaper than you think—definitely worth pricing.
- Too many leaks start where you can’t see them. Purchasing a leak monitoring device notifies you of leaky faucets, pipes, toilets and appliances, so you can catch the problem and take care of it—before too much water is wasted. Some devices even have a way to shut water off if a leak is detected resulting in less or no property damage.
- Dishwashers and washing machines with an Energy Star rating can reduce water use by more than 50%—which might make it a good idea to replace old appliances sooner rather than later, depending on how much water and energy you will save compared to your old appliance.
For more ideas like these, help implementing any of these changes, or help calculating the cost-benefit analysis on these green tips, call Robinson’s Plumbing Service for their specialized Green-Plumbing Analysis consultation today.
