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Money-Saving Toilets
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Money-Saving Toilets
Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. Did you know that you could save 20 percent on your water bill just by replacing your toilet? Most conventional toilets use 3 1/2 gallons or more of water. And the U.S. flushes nearly 5 billion gallons of this precious resource every day. But this is the dawn of a new generation. Low-flush toilets use 1.6 gallons per flush, and now high-efficiency toilets (or HETS) using 1.28 gallons per flush are fast becoming the standard. They re a little more expensive, but in some thirsty places like California, homeowners can get big rebates for replacing their old toilets the job can pay for itself in a couple of years. To make sure they re up to any challenge, low-flush toilets have undergone some serious design changes to the bowl, trap and water flow. Some have pressure-assisted flushing, a glossier trapway finish to reduce drag and even a dual flush option: two levels of water use for liquid or solid waste. Replacing your old toilet s a great idea, but if you can t do it right away, there are other ways to conserve. Make sure your toilet doesn t run unnecessarily by keeping the flush mechanism in good repair. To reduce the amount of water needed to fill the tank, fill a plastic soda bottle with sand, cap it and set it inside the tank to take up some of the volume. And it s hard to believe, but if everyone flushed just one fewer time, we d save the equivalent of a small lake each day! Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008
