Keeping your bathroom green means cutting back on water. But it’s not as hard as it sounds. Saving water doesn’t require “navy showers,” where a person turns the water off while sudsing up, and then briefly back on again to rinse. It doesn’t require skipping the toilet flushing for every third person, either.
Sometimes all it means is installing a high-efficiency toilet. A traditional toilet will use thousands of gallons more water, over one year, than a high-efficiency toilet.
Green Toilet
Don’t flush your money down the drain, literally! A toilet alone can use up to 27 percent of the entire household’s water usage, according to the EPA.
If your home was built before 1994, chances are your bathroom fixtures aren’t saving you any money. New designs are required, by federal standards, to use less water. Replacing your toilets, showerheads, and faucets with low-flow models will save you money automatically, even if you don’t limit your use of the appliances themselves.
The newest kind of green toilet has a dual-flush mechanism, which uses one small flush when only a tiny amount of water is needed, and a second flush with more water when it’s needed.
Separate shower stalls can also save money, rather than the tub-shower combination. Running a bath, according to the EPA, can use seven times the energy as hopping in the shower. If your shower is separate, you won’t be tempted to have a seat and whip out the bubble bath.
Special thanks to Budget Bath for this article, Bath Remodeling Maryland
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I was a little surprised to hear that taking a bath uses seven times more energy than a shower. Obviously it’s more water and energy, but I never would have guessed it to be that much!
Suzanne Holt
4 Jan 12 at