In recent years, energy costs have been rising in Alberta. Skyrocketing energy bills, it has placed burdens on Canadian families. You need to find the areas in your house where you can save some dollars on those expensive energy bills. One such place in your house is your bathroom. There are an array of efficient products and fixtures that you can choose from to save on energy bills. Let us look at what benefits these energy-efficient fixtures provide and why most plumbers today recommend them.
Low-flow Faucets
If you are using a traditional faucet, then your faucet is using 2.5 gallons per minute (GPM) or more. When you replace the traditional faucet with a high-efficiency, water-saving faucet, you use only 1.5 GPM. Replacing the traditional faucet with a new highly efficient variant is an inexpensive way to save on water. Installing a low-flow faucet can save around 700 gallons of water annually.
Apart from replacing your faucet, check for a leaky faucet as it can waste more water and energy than you think. If you do not want to replace your traditional faucet, you can install aerators to reduce water usage. Modern aerators are designed to keep the pressure high without compromising water flow.
Showerheads
Switching to a low-flow showerhead can be a hard decision. Many people are reluctant to replace showerheads, especially with low-flow ones, due to their bad experience with older low-flow showerheads that sometimes lacked water pressure.
But, today’s high-efficiency showerheads offer high performance with water savings. These showerheads reduce home energy costs by using less hot water. The flow rate of old shower heads is about 2.5 GPM or even more. Whereas, high-efficiency showerheads use 2 GPM and less.
Low Flow Toilet
Toilets account for over 25% of typical households’ water use. If your toilet was purchased before 1994, then it uses more than 1.6 gallons of water per flush. On the other hand, ultra-flow flush and high-efficiency toilets use less than 1.28 gallons per flush.
You can also choose dual flush toilets that save 0.8-1.1 gallons for liquid waste and 1.6 gallons of solid waste. So, ensure that you speak to your plumber to choose the right toilet and avoid any toilet troubles that can cost you a fortune.
Tankless Water Heater
The main advantage of having tankless water heater is to eliminate the cost of storing and heating 40-50 gallons (or even more) of water in a storage tank, therefore, wasting less energy. Tankless water heaters take up very little space and use 30% to 50% less energy than units with storage tanks. These heaters have a direct supply of water that is heated as you switch the heater on.
This saves a lot of water as well as energy consumed to heat less water at a time. So ask your plumber to install a tankless water heater that can get more compact and can be mounted on a wall.
Taking care of small plumbing issues can lead to great benefits. It can save for the environment and also decrease the burden of energy bills on you. So, make sure to use the above-mentioned energy efficient bathroom fixtures for your home.
