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Home > Blogs > Here's the Deal: Bargains in Hamilton and Middletown > Archives > 2010 > March > 19 > Entry
Stop flushing your money down the toilet
I never realized how much money I was literally flushing down the toilet each month.
Last summer I purchased a 1964 ranch house in need of a lot of updating. Most of the home was at original builders’ grade, including the toilets. This didn’t bother me too much until my water bill jumped $70, caused by one of these old fixtures leaking.
Immediately I began researching for a suitable replacement. According to toiletology.com, my old flusher was guzzling 5.5 gallons of water with every flush. With an average of 10 flushes a day in my two-person household, that adds up to more than 20,000 gallons of water a year going down the toilet.
I’ve always leaned toward being green because of the value financially and environmentally. I found a Glacier Bay toilet at Home Depot for just $98 with the WaterSense seal, meaning it meets rigorous U.S. EPA standards for water conservation. At just 1.28 gallons a flush, this toilet will reduce my water use by 15,403 a year over my old toilet if I flush 10 times a day, like my previous example.
I saved more money by having my husband install it. The most plumbing he’s ever done is install a new faucet, but he was able to knock out this project in just 45 minutes.
I did worry if the toilet would be able to clear the bowl using so much less water and power than my old flusher. After a few days getting used to having to hold the lever down longer (my old one you barely tapped it and it would flush) I can report it works very well and has impressed me with how quickly the tank recycles.
- If you’re not convinced about how much you can save by just replacing one toilet with a new Water Sense model, look at these figures from the EPA:
- Toilets account 30 percent of the average household water bill. Energy-efficient toilets use 20 percent less water than older toilets.
- A family of four can save $99 annually by replacing one toilet that was installed between 1980 and 1994 with a WaterSense-labeled toilet.
- A new toilet can save up to 16,000 gallons of water in one year for a family of four. This is roughly equivalent to two backyard swimming pools.
- If just one percent of American homes replaced an older toilet with a new WaterSense-labeled toilet, the country would save more than 38 million kilowatt-hours of electricity — enough to supply more than 43,000 households for one month.
For more on how you can save by replacing your toilet, click here.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Savings tips
Comments
By Groucho
March 19, 2010 6:14 AM | Link to this
My dear Jessica, When you “hold the lever down longer” in order to “to clear the bowl”, guess what happens? You flush away much of the water, and the savings, that you included in your calculations. Drink your whiskey like I do (neat, instead of on the rocks) if you really want to save the polar bears.