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.