Water Saving Tips for Toilets, Faucets, and Shower Heads

Style and Comfort is not the only thing that has grown with the development of the modern bathroom. Water saving products have started to flourish as well. With an ever increasing population, putting stress on our limited supply of fresh water. Water conservation is more important than ever. The average household's bathroom uses 65 percent of the home's total water usage. Bathroom fixtures like low flow shower heads, low flow faucets and low flow toilets significantly decrease water consumption. Modernization of the toilet has brought about some new environmentally friendly changes. Today's emphasis on being more green has brought water conservation to forefront of toilet design. The first 1.6 gallon per flush low flow toilet appeared on the scene in mid 90s. Unfortunately these toilets were very faulty. So faulty that many people claim they had to flush twice to remove all the waist. Which meant the toilet supposed low flow toilet was now using 3.2 gallons per flush, which is very far from water conserving. Toilet manufacturers knew they had to start developing fully functional low flow toilets. Within time many manufacturers had their own version of a fully functional low flow toilet . Performance improvements over the years make these low flow products make it hard to distinguish them from their dated water guzzling counterparts.Just by upgrading your regular toilet to a dual flush toilet you can save your home over 4,000 gallons of water per year.


When we leave a faucet running, every minute that goes by, between 1 to 2.5 gallons is going down the drain of between. Every time we leave Water one of the most heavily abused resources. Water belongs to everyone, not only those whom pay for it or can pay for it. "Leaving the tap running while we brush our teeth wastes almost five gallons of water. A good way to save water is to wet the toothbrush and rinse, plus get a glass of water for rinsing teeth. This good habit will we save about 5 gallons of water. "When we take showers, the average person washes about sixty gallons down the drain. Therefore it is best to keep showers restricted to a limited time. In general, showers consume about thirty percent of the household's water. For example, a shower head spends about 3 gallons of water per minute, there are shower heads now available that are low flow and cut this water usage in half. To test how much water your shower head uses place a large container, preferably something in the five gallon range, catching all the water that the shower ex-spells. Let the shower water fill up the container for exactly one minute. Now measure how much water is in the container. This will tell you the gallons (GPM) per minute of your shower head. The same type of method can be applied to your faucets. Updating these small fixtures can be rather inexpensive and can save a great deal of money on water bill. Making slight changed and improvements in your daily water usage will have a huge impact on water conservation.

Types of Water Saving Toilets

If you have been shopping around for toilets recently. You have probably noticed the broad selection of water saving toilets. It can get very confusing. There are the 5 different types of water saving toilets.


1. Composting toilet: A composting toilet uses an aerobic processing system which breaks down the waste in the toilet. This type of toilet also uses the process of evaporation to eliminate liquid waste. A compost toilet does not have pipes connecting it to a plumbing system. The toilet is used to prevent harmful disease causing germs from being released into the environment. The toilet also uses almost no water.

2. Regular low flow toilet: This type of toilet uses 1.6 gallons per flush. The regular low flow toilet is the typical toilet you will see anywhere. In the mid 90's the government made it against the law to use or sell a toilet that uses more than 1.6 gallons per flush. There are two different types of flush mechanisms available for low flow toilets. The gravity flush toilet which is pretty much the standard toilet. This type of flush toilet uses water force to flush waste. It is easy to maintain, gets the job done, and parts are readily available. Finally there is the pressure assist flush toilet, which is mainly used for commercial toilets or homes with poor plumbing. A pressure assist toilet utilizes pressurized water through the use of air force to flush the waste down the drain. The use of air makes the flush a little bit louder than the gravity assist toilet.

3. Ultra low flow toilet: The ultra low flow toilet uses only 1.28 gallons per flush. I have heard that this toilet is faulty when it comes to flushing all the waste down the drain. Installation of the ultra low toilet is the same as the regular low flow toilet

4. Dual flush toilet: Allows the user to choose between a full flush and half flush. The dual flush toilet saves about 4,000 gallons of water more than the regular 1.6 gallon per flush toilet. Dual flush toilets dominate the European market and are mandatory in Australia and Israel. They install just like a regular toilet.

5. High efficiency toilet (HET): Is any toilet that flushes 20% less than regular 1.6 gallon per flush toilets. Dual flush toilets, ultra low flow toilets and composting toilets all qualify as high efficiency toilets.

Why should we care about how much water the toilet flushes? Water is obviously a very precious resource that is becoming scarce around the world. In fact 46 states are predicted to have water shortages over the next 5 years. Every drop of fresh water counts. Toilets waste the most water in home. Upgrading to a water saving toilet is a simple way to conserve one of earth's greatest resources.

Low Flow and Dual Flush Toilets

Low flow and dual flush toilets, how are they different?
Low flow toilets or (low flush toilets) flush 1.6 gallons of water or less. Which means that a dual flush toilet is a low flow toilet. The dual flush toilet has two options for flushing, a full flush 1.6 gallons per flush and a half flush typically 0.8 gallons per flush.

9 Gross Toilet Facts

1."Pick the toilet seat up," if you’re a male you have probably heard this at least once in your lifetime. This phrase typically relates to the fact you may have left a few drops on the toilet seat. This of course is extremely disgusting and picking up the toilet seat out of courtesy is always a must. But urine is a sterile liquid. Urine is composed of 95% water, with small amounts of salts, ammonia, Urea, Uric acid, and a few others.

2. Thank you Automatic flush toilet. In a public restroom the toilet flush handle can have over 40,000 germs per square inch. Washing your hands with anti bacteria hand sanitizer after going to the bathroom is always necessary. The act of cleansing the hands after a toilet trip can kill up to 95% of those disgusting toilet handle germs. A hand dryer can increase the amount of bacteria on your hand. Therefore drying your hands with a paper towel is more sanitary.

3. Flush with the lid down. It is reported that a toilet flush can cause the tiny fecal matter particles to become airborne With this is mind it best to move your toothbrush as far away from the toilet as possible.

4. Fish on dope. Ninety percent of pharmaceuticals taken by people are excreted through urination. As a result our sewer systems contain large doses of the excreted drugs. Unfortunately these pharmaceuticals get into our water supply. Wreaking havoc on the local underwater Eco-system. During recent research the EPA discovered fish containing small amounts of estrogen, cholesterol-lowering drugs, pain relievers, antibiotics, caffeine and even anti-depressants. These drugs cause many types of problems for our fish.

5. Water guzzler. A toilet consumes more water than any other appliance in the home. A normal person flushes close to twenty gallons of fresh potable water everyday. The United States flushes more than six billion gallons of fresh water per day. Fortunately toilets that use less water are available. These toilets such the dual flush toilet significantly decreases the amount of water used per flush.


6. A lady in Kansas was stuck on the toilet for nearly 2 years. The Kansas' woman skin had actually formed around the toilet seat. Considering that the average person spends three years of their life on the toilet. Makes this lady's record truly unique.

7. A certain costume malfunction usually comes to mind when mentioning the almighty Superbowl halftime show. However many Americans probably missed this error because they were using the toilet. During the halftime of the Superbowl the toilet is flushed more than any other time during the year.


8. In 2006 a Tampa area seventh grader hypothesized that there was more bacteria in the ice at fast food restaurants than there was in the toilet water for her science project. Unfortunately her hypothesis was proven correct. She found that 70% of time the toilet water contained fewer bacteria than the ice.

9. Don't shake with your left hand. The left hand in India is commonly known as the hand used carry out not so pleasant bathroom chores. As a result making contact with a person with the left hand is considered a disgrace.

Hollywood going Green in their Bathrooms

Many trends are pioneered in Tinsel Town. Due to our warp-speed communication channels, these trends are spread and emulated internationally the day after they begin. Fortunately, celebrities are using this trend power to create awareness for the green movement. More and more scientific evidence suggests that our shared water supply is becoming sparse, which is now turning Hollywood’s trend-setting attentions to the most wasteful places in the home…the bathroom.

Musician Sheryl Crow and A-list actor Will Smith are taking their toilet paper usage seriously. Sheryl crow uses toilet tissue one square at a time and advices all to follow her example. Will Smith has just recently purchased a high tech toilet, which uses sprays of water to carry out the toilet paper's regular duties. Affording a high tech toilet may be out of your budget but conserving toilet paper is a good idea. Try to purchase EPA-approved toilet paper and recycled toilet paper. Every square really does count. In the United States alone we use over ten million trees just for toilet paper. Not to mention the dyes and chemicals used during the manufacturing process. These harmful chemicals leak into the Earth, caustically affecting the environment.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jackie Chan, and Cameron Diaz are conserving water with every toilet flush. Cameron Diaz’s new motto sings, "if it's yellow leave it mellow, if it's brown flush it down." Jackie Chan has his own twist on Diaz's ethos; he flushes the toilet only once at the end of each day. Environmentally conscious trendsetter Leo spent over three thousand dollars on a low flow toilet. All these actors believe the public should follow their lead or at least be more conscious of the next toilet flush. In the US the average person flushes down the toilet twenty gallons of fresh water down the drain everyday. There is really no need for such wasteful habits. There are toilets available that significantly cut down on the amount of toilet water flushed for the same amount of money one would spend on a traditional porcelain throne. Dual flush toilets serve as an excellent solution to our excessive water consumption habit. They can reduce the amount of toilet water a family uses by four thousand gallons per year.

Jennifer Aniston has limited her showers to 3 minutes. She explains that the every two minutes of showering uses as much water as an African has for one day. The average American spends eight minutes in the shower and the average shower head produces 2 gallons per minute. This comes to wasteful sixteen gallons of fresh water for cleaning ourselves. By following Jen's lead we could all decrease the amount of time spent in the shower, saving literally tons of our world’s most precious resource.

Brad Pitt, Aniston’s former hubby has been providing millions of dollars for the reconstruction efforts in New Orleans post Katrina. Pitt and his wife Angelina Jolie, chose to dedicate so much time and effort to this cause because the funds are allocated towards building green homes complete with energy and water saving appliances and fixtures.

We may not have the money or the star power of these celebs but we can do our part to carry on their message. It only takes small steps to be eco-friendly.

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