Water shortages and drought are now more common in San Francisco, LA and the result has been brown lawns, lower water pressure and higher costs for water usage. Thankfully, there are ways that you can lower your water bill by changing your lifestyle so that you lower your water consumption.
It is also helpful to enlist the services of a professional plumber to check all of your pipes, condenser coils and hoses for leaks, as each drop of water that is wasted can accumulate and result in big charges on your water bill.
So, before you attempt to conserve and recycle water, make sure that you are not paying for water that is leaking into the soil around your home or inside of your walls.
Take a Short Shower Instead of Long Bath
A long soak in a full bathtub truly is a luxury that few people can afford nowadays because filling any vessel with forty gallons of water is quite expensive.
Instead, opt to take a shower that is five minutes in length or shorter. This can save you about 25 gallons of water, that you would normally be paying for on your water bill, every time you bathe.
If you have family members that like to linger in the shower present them with a timer to help limit their use of water.
Use Greywater to Water Your Garden
Never waste water that comes from your sink, bath or laundry. Instead, save it in buckets and water your garden with it.
You can also hire a professional plumber to come in and rig up hoses that are attached to your drain and appliance so that greywater is trained to flow outside into your garden or into catch basins that can be used for lawn irrigation.
Save Hundreds of Gallons of Water When You Go to a Car Wash
When you wash your car at home, you end up using a hose through a sprayer that is not a water-saving device.
It can take a couple of hundred gallons of water to get a really dirty large vehicle clean, and this expense is going to eventually turn up on your water bill.
By contrast, modern car washes use low-flow high-pressure washers that dispose of the water in a safe way where it is treated properly before it flows into local bodies of water.