Water Savings...Saving You Big Money

Even if you have your own well and water is cheap, most likely, it is not cheap to heat.  Here are some ways to help you save:

• Buy 1 liter of something. Drink it. Fill with rocks or simply water. Put it in your toilet tank. Save money every time you flush. Cost: Free to less than $1. Payback: nearly instant.
• Buy a low flow shower head. They have improved drastically over the years. When we swapped our 2.5 gallon per minute (gpm) shower head to a 1.5 gpm shower head, we noticed no difference in shower time or pressure... but WOW did we notice a difference in our water, sewer and bge bills. Look for reviewed ones. A common one that seems well reviewed is the Waterpik Eco Flow. Cost: $5-45 Payback less than 6 mos. I've been tempted to try the .5 pgm aqua helix, but not sure how the family would react! Imagine the savings!!
• Buy aerators for every sink in your home. Your sinks already have them, but most likely, they are rated at 2.2 gpm. This is overkill for handwashing. We have found the .5 gpm have a squeal to them, so have changed our bathroom sinks to 1 gpm and our kitchen sink to 1.5 gpm  Huge savings, cheap thing to do. Unscrew them, label where they go with masking tape and go into Lowe's or any hardware store and ask for help finding low flow aerators (male/female screws, you just need to make sure you get the correct ones). 1 gpm and 1.5 gpm have been easy to find in my experience. If you have a blending sink (not 2 knobs, but one), you are waking up your hot water heater every time you turn on your water! And very often, if you shut the water off while you wash your hands, it won't even get hot but you have just cost yourself money. This is why on our blended sinks, I turn off our hot knob during the summer. Note that my husband thinks this mad, but he isn't complaining about our bills!!! Cost: Less than $10; Less than 6 mos payback.
• Consider upgrading your washer. Don't fall for a matched washer/drier set. Driers have not had improved efficiency since the 1970s. And with the dry winter air, spend $20 on an extendable drying rack from Target and humidify for free! Our HE washer, which was the most efficient at the time (there are now more efficient models), paid for itself in 1.5 years (using 1 load/day as our #). Do the calculations for your family by finding your current washer model online and looking at water and KWH usage. The old washers truly guzzle in every way. Cost: Over $500. Payback 1-3 years. Always look at efficiency and calculate long term usage before decided which is truly the "cheapest" model: Water, Sewer, KWH used, Water heating (this is ballpark).
• Consider upgrading your dishwasher. Handwashing is difficult to do efficiently. Our dishwasher holds almost every dish we own and uses 1.8 gallons of water. Without rinsing! It only uses 1 kwh per load. Cost: Over $500. Payback: variable, based on usage. Always look at efficiency and calculate long term usage before decided which is truly the "cheapest" model: Water, Sewer, KWH used, Water heating (this is ballpark). 

When looking on the energy star labels, note that this is calculated with 11 cents per kWh. This does not account for utility taxes, etc. It is simply the national average. In Maryland, depending on whom you have have chosen for power (I hope you've done this!), you are paying 17-19 cents/kWh! Calculate accordingly. The good thing with living in an expensive state for energy is excellent incentive for efficiency and the payback times are much shorter! :)