While it’s not a government recognized holiday, a lot of the world
still recognizes April 22nd as Earth Day. It’s a day when we take
some time to think of the Earth not just as the planet we live on, but our home.
Like our own homes, we have a responsibility to make sure that this is
a safe, clean place for the people who live on it, and who will live here
in the generations to come. We can all do our part in big and small ways,
and that includes plumbing. How? There are a few ways.
Get a Water Filter Installed
This particular choice has the most direct benefits for residents in a
home. Water from your tap is safe to drink, thanks to the chlorination
process that most towns and cities use for the drinking water supply,
but safe does not always mean good.
A water filter goes a step further removing even more impurities from the
water that chlorine may miss. If you have it installed on your tap, and
you have an old home with lead pipes, you can even get rid of the contaminants
your home adds to water in the “final leg” of its journey to
the tap. It’s safer, cleaner, better tasting water.
Find Ways to Shrink Your Carbon Footprint
More and more talk of carbon emissions and carbon footprints have come
up in science and environmental news. Carbon emissions and your “footprint”
are concerned with just how much carbon dioxide-or CO2-you release into the air.
That can be either through equipment and technology you use or indirectly
through your interactions with companies that emit CO2 into the air through
their own practices.
You can shrink this down by using low carbon footprint equipment, or by
giving your business to low carbon footprint companies. Every little bit can help!
Make Your New Water Heater Tankless
If you’ve got an older water tank, you’re using up a lot of energy
to heat up gallons of water collected in a big space. By switching over
to a tankless heater, you save energy spent trying to heat up those huge
volumes, as the water is heated directly in your plumbing.
Properly scaled to the needs of your home, a tankless water heater can
save up to $100 a year on your energy bills.
Get New Eco-Friendly Plumbing Fixtures
Showers use up a lot of water every minute that they are on, and the same
goes for toilets, which use up gallons of water with every flush. Newer
plumbing fixtures are much more eco-friendly in terms of water usage.
High-efficiency shower heads, for example, use up less water, but you’re
not sacrificing your water pressure to get that.
Low flow toilets don’t flush down as much water, and you can use even
less if you distinguish between flushing solid or liquid waste. Either
way, you use less water, which means you pay less too.
