The average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water and sewer bill. By making just a few simple changes to use water more efficiently, you can significantly reduce your cost. If all U.S. households installed water efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! Also, when we use water more efficiently, we reduce the need for costly water supply infrastructure investments and new wastewater treatment facilities.
Simple Low Cost Ways To Save Water & Money
In The Kitchen…
- Keep drinking water in the refrigerator instead of letting the faucet run until the water is cool
- Wash fruits and vegetables in a basin
- Do not use water to defrost frozen foods; thaw them in the refrigerator overnight
- Use a dishpan for washing and rinsing dishes
- Operate the dishwasher only when completely full
In the Laundry…
- Use the appropriate water level or load size selection on the washing machine
- Wash full loads whenever possible
In the Bathroom…
- Fix leaky faucets
- Never use your toilet as a wastebasket
- Don’t let the water run while shaving or brushing your teeth
- Take short showers instead of tub baths
- Turn off the water flow while soaping or shampooing
Outdoors…
- Sweep driveways, sidewalks, and steps rather than hosing them off
- Wash the car from a bucket, or consider using a commercial car wash that recycles water
- When using a hose, control the flow with an automatic shutoff valve
- Check your sprinkler system for leaks, overspray and broken sprinkler heads
Contest Home Example
In the contest winning home, the installation team installed a new high efficiency, water-saving toilet in one of the two bathrooms, provided by Anaheim Public Utilities. During a previous visit to the home Anaheim Public Utilities’ energy auditors had installed high performance shower heads and faucet aerators that will also save on water usage.
The largest amount of water used inside your home goes toward flushing the toilet. In fact, toilets account for 30% of the water used inside your home. High efficiency toilets use 20% less water than standard toilets and flush the same amount of waste. This can save over 50,000 gallons of water over the lifetime of the model!
The installation team also installed a high efficiency ENERGY STAR qualified clothes washer which uses roughly half of the water required by older models.
A typical household of four does about 400 loads of laundry each year. Conventional clothes washers use 40 to 50 gallons for each full load. That adds up to 16,000 gallon of water a year, or more, just for clothes washing!
ENERGY STAR washers use only 18 to 25 gallons per load and about half the total gas and electric energy compared to a standard clothes washer. By choosing an ENERGY STAR clothes washer, you will be saving thousands of gallons of water every year and benefit by lower energy and water bills.
How To Do Your Own Home Energy Makeover
The Anaheim energy makeover contest-winning home demonstrates how homeowners can significantly reduce their energy costs and improve home comfort and safety. You can do your own home energy makeover by participating in Anaheim Public Utilities’ Home Investment Package (HIP) Program. The HIP program bundles various rebate offers into a one-stop shop designed to make homeowners sit up and take notice of the more than $15,000 in savings they can realize through the program. These savings include a waiver of permit fees for energy-efficient improvements that can cost up to $1,000, and up to $14,000 in incentives. Plus, special low-cost financing is provided by the Electric & Gas Industries Association (EGIA).
Click Here to learn more about the Anaheim Home Investment Package (HIP) program.
To learn what you should do to save water, sign up for a free assessment of your home's water and energy use by an Anaheim Public Utilities expert. They will show you how simple repairs can turn into real water savings. Plus, they will install at no charge to you, low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators, toilet dams and flappers (as needed), plus up to five free energy saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). To learn more or sign up, call Anaheim Public Utilities and ask for the Home Utility Checkup at
(714) 939-9020.
About The Contest
The Home Investment Package (HIP) Home Energy Makeover Contest was sponsored by Anaheim Public Utilities and the Electric & Gas Industries Association (EGIA) to demonstrate how homeowners can significantly reduce their energy costs and improve home comfort and safety. More than 500 Anaheim residents entered the contest, and twenty finalists were selected through an application screening process that identified those homes with the greatest potential to demonstrate energy savings. Contest sponsors donated the products and services featured.
For more than 100 years, Anaheim Public Utilities has served Anaheim water and electric customers with low rates and reliable service. Anaheim Public Utilities is Orange County's only publicly owned water and electric utility. The Electric & Gas Industries Association (EGIA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions through a nationwide network of contractors, distributors, manufacturers and utility companies.
To view a series of these fact sheets on other aspects of the Home Energy Makeover, go to
www.egia.org/anaheim