According to the Environmental Protection Agency, letting the faucet run while washing dishes wastes ten gallons of water and enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for almost a day. If that only happened once in a while, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But every day? Those wasted gallons will add up fast!
The benefits of saving water are almost endless. It helps protect wildlife, preserves the energy required for treating domestic water, and reduces your water bill. Here are four easy ways you can conserve water in the kitchen. Keep these best practices in mind, and you can help save the world and save money at the same time:
Update kitchen fixtures to ones with a WaterSense label
WaterSense is an EPA-sponsored program promoting national water conservation. The biggest effort of the WaterSense program is the development of the WaterSense label. If a plumbing fixture has the WaterSense label, it means several specific things.
First: it performs as well as or better than similar products. Second: it’s been proven to be 20% more water efficient than comparable products. Third: using it will help fulfill the entire countries’ water saving goals. Fourth: it uses responsible, forward-thinking technology to accomplish these achievements. Using WaterSense products in your kitchen are a great choice for saving money and helping the environment.
Filter your water at home
It can take 1.5 gallons of water to produce a single 16 oz. water bottle. And that doesn’t even include the water in the bottle itself! By installing a whole-home water filter in your kitchen sink, you get fresher, better water that isn’t as wasteful.
Only run the dishwasher when it’s full
According to the EPA, running the dishwasher when it’s completely full can remove an entire load of dishes from your routine per week. Put another way, that load of dishes could be considered up to 300 gallons of water annually.
If you want to do even more, you could install a dishwasher labelled by Consumer Reports as “excellent in energy efficiency without sacrificing cleaning”. These dishwashers only use around 4 gallons to complete a cycle. The average dishwasher uses 6 or more.
Don’t use water baths to defrost food
A hot water bath is a way to defrost frozen food. First, place the food in a bowl with water and run a stream of water from the kitchen faucet over it. Let the water overflow out of the bowl. As water continuously flows over the food and out of the bowl, it thaws the frozen food quickly.
It’s effective, but as you have noticed, it’s also wasteful. Letting your faucet run continuously is a huge waste of water and energy. Instead of using water baths to defrost food, try planning your meals a little further in advance. If you give yourself enough time, you’ll be able to defrost your food via less wasteful methods.
Water is great. It gives us life, it refreshes us, and it helps us stay clean and healthy. What’s not to love? If you’re interested in pursuing a more water-efficient lifestyle, contact the experts at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing® of Dallas and we’d be happy to talk to you about your options.