Summer is here, and with the added costs of fun summer activities and vacations, you may be looking for easy ways to save money around the home. One of the best ways to reduce how much you spend on your household is cutting down on the cost of monthly bills. While you can call your cable or phone company to reduce the monthly cost of your services, it’s a little harder to cut the number of consumables like power and water. However, with some simple adjustments to your lifestyle, you can save money on your water bills this upcoming summer. There are efficient ways on how to save money on your water bill no matter how large your home or family.
How to Save Money on your Water Bill
Here are some top ways on how to save money on your water bill as the temperature outside gets hotter.
Shorter Showers
While it may not be possible to skip your daily shower in the sticky, sweaty summer, you can cut down on how much water you use by keeping your shower short. Start by eliminating any bad habits, like allowing the water to run for an extended period before you get in or taking multiple showers in one day. Consider turning off the water when you do tasks that take longer like washing your hair or shaving. If you find it hard to keep yourself from staying in the shower for a long time, you can try using a timer to remind yourself how much time has gone by. While each person’s preferences are different, many families have success limiting showers to five minutes or less.
Find and Fix Any Leaks
Even small leaks can add up to a large waste of water and a spike in your utility bills. A good clue that there is a leak present is a sudden spike in your water usage and a higher bill. Look back over your monthly bills and see if the amount of water used suddenly went up with no real explanation. This might be due to a leak you haven’t noticed yet. Other clues that a leak is present include:
- A wet or musty smell in the house, even when it isn’t humid or raining outside. This smell doesn’t typically occur for no reason, so if you can’t find the source, it can be hidden behind walls or in the home’s foundation.
- Mold growing in a part of the home where it didn’t exist before. Mold spores are present in the air all around, but they can only attach themselves to a surface if moisture is present on the surface.
- Water patches on the floor or ceiling. Sudden moisture or brown patches mean that water is accumulating, whether due to a piping or roof leak.
Upgrade your toilet
Even if your toilet works properly, it may be using more water than it needs, particularly if it’s been in place for decades. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that up to thirty percent of the home’s water use can be due to the toilet, so cutting the amount this one fixture uses can result in big savings for you. Older toilets use six gallons of water per flush, according to the EPA. A newer toilet will use less water and as a bonus is likely to be quieter than your old one. Water saving toilets use two gallons or fewer per flush, saving the equivalent of four milk jugs worth of water with each use.
Smart irrigation System
Irrigating your lawn can be a difficult balance to strike when summer temperatures spike and the sun starts to beam down on your yard. You want to ensure the grass has enough moisture to stay healthy but you don’t want to waste water by flooding the grass too much. One of the best ways to handle this and minimize the amount of time you have to spend on it is to install a smart irrigation system. This is a system that adjusts the amount of water used in your irrigation based on your soil condition instead of an old-fashioned system that runs each day regardless of whether the grass actually needs it. Having an automated system also prevents human error, like watering more often than necessary or forgetting to turn the sprinklers off, so they run for hours on end.
Use your dishwasher
If you grew up decades ago, your parents may have taught you that using the dishwasher wastes electricity and water. This may have been true in the 1980s and 1990s when dishwasher models required a lot of utility use. Current dishwasher models are made to be energy efficient and consume as little resources as possible. While it may seem counter intuitive, hand washing a sink full of dishes can use more water than the dishwasher for many reasons, including:
- You may leave the water running out of habit as you scrub the dishes or put them in the dish rack after you rinse them.
- Kids and teens who help with dishes may waste water without realizing it, either by running the water more often than is necessary or wasting water by sloshing it onto the counter and floor.
- If you use a sprayer head to get food and condiments off the surface of plates, the water required to power these items off the surface can be more than a regular rinse.
Cutting down your water use during the North Carolina summer can be much easier than you think. Once you incorporate these easy tips into your daily life, you’re sure to see a reduction in the amount of your utility bills and you can feel better about doing your part for the environment.
