Do you know where your water is being wasted?
The California Association of Realtors® “One Cool Thing” recently sent out a diagram of where exactly your home’s water is being wasted.
A typical three bedroom, single family home in California uses approximately 174,000 gallons of water a year!
Here is where most families are using that water:
- Kitchen and bathroom faucets – 9%
- Shower – 17%
- Toilets – 4%
- Clothes Washer – 4%
- Landscaping – 57%
- Overwatering – 9%
Did you know approximately 1 gallon of water equals $10? The following is a cost breakdown for the water used in your home:
- Low flow toilets save 6.4 gallons per flush and cost anywhere from $60-$200.
- Faucet aerators save 1.5 gallons per minute and only cost $2.
- Low-flow shower heads save 2.5-3.5 gallons of water per minute and only cost anywhere from $10 to $40.
The California Senate Bill 407 states that by January 1, 2017 all residential properties in California that were build prior to 1994 will be required to retrofit with the following:
- Toilets that use no more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush.
- Shower heads with flow rates of no more than 2.5 gallons per minute.
- Other interior fixtures that use less than 2.2 gallons of water per minute.
Source: California Association of Realtors® and the California Homebuilding Foundation.
