For people that care about the environment, April 22nd is an important day, because it’s Earth Day. It’s the officially designated time that reminds everyone that we’ve only got one planet to live on and we have to take care of it.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do that right in your home, and here are a few tips you can do to get started from our team here at Performance Plumbing.
Water Efficiency
Using more water than you need is wasteful and has an impact on the environment. But new eco-friendly plumbing fixtures can have a significant effect on curbing water waste.
High-efficiency showerheads, for example, can still provide that high pressure you may be looking for, but do it with less water.
Modern “low flow” toilets can use up to 50% less water than older models, especially from the 20th century. They even have different settings, to flush away even less water on liquid waste compared to solid waste.
All these tweaks mean you waste less water, and that means you even pay less on your water bill every month.
Throw Away Fewer Bottles
Some people don’t trust their taps for drinking water, so they buy a lot of bottled water instead. Over time, that’s a lot of money, and worse yet, a lot of bottles that need to be dealt with, either through recycling or thrown in the trash for less responsible people.
Getting a water filter installed means you enjoy the same safe, tasty, clean, clear drinking water, but you now get as much as you want, whenever you want, and there are no more bottles to deal with afterward.
Use Less Energy
If your home still has an old fashioned water heater, you’re paying more on your energy bills than you need to. Old heaters store large volumes of water in tanks and need to heat it all up. Once that tank is emptied on a bath, shower or washing dishes, it starts all over again.
Tankless water heaters get rid of the space taken up by the tank, and inefficiency of heating a huge volume of water. Instead, water in your pipes is directly heated. This means you pay less on energy bills—up to $100 less per year—and you also get hot water that never runs out once it gets going.
Cut Your Carbon Footprint Down
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is one of the greenhouse gases that retain heat in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming.
You can shrink your own contribution to CO2 emissions by using eco-friendly products with lower emissions.
You can also start buying products from companies that have lowered their CO2 emissions during their own manufacturing process.
When everyone “chips in” like this, it makes a significant, positive impact in slowing global warming.
