The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the average home wastes 90 gallons of water per day. That adds up quickly — 10,000 gallons of water per household per year, and over 1 trillion gallons if you tally the national average. That may seem extreme, but once you understand where water waste comes from, you’ll begin to understand that you’re wasting water in ways you don’t even realize.
Electricity, air conditioning, and internet access might seem like important trappings of civilization, but from the dawn of humanity, we’ve been defined by water. It’s why so many major cities — Sacramento included — sprung up close to sources of clean, freshwater.
How Much Water Are We Wasting in Sacramento?
If recent years have taught us anything, however, it’s that our water supply is precarious, and it’s getting worse. Understanding how much water is wasted every day, how much water is wasted every year, and how to conserve it for future generations isn’t just about saving a few dollars on Sacramento plumbing service or a utility bill; our very survival depends on it.
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Identifying the Sources of Water Waste
Where is all of this water waste coming from? Taking too long in the shower, zoning out while you wash your hands, or absentmindedly leaving the faucet running because you were interrupted by a phone call certainly don’t help, but that’s not even the worst of it. Among the worst culprits:
- A leaky toilet loses 60 gallons of water per day
- A kitchen faucet that drips once per minute loses five gallons of water per day
- An old shower head that drips ten times per minute results in a loss of 500 gallons of water yearly
- Hand-washing is far less efficient than using a dishwasher for the same number of dishes
- Overwatering lawns, using high-flow fixtures, or having an antiquated toilet also result in higher-than-average water use
Some water waste is obvious, but how do you catch water waste you can’t even see? Start by evaluating your water use; a family of four should average about 12,000 gallons per month, and if your use is higher than that, it’s time to evaluate your usage patterns and your plumbing alike. It also helps to monitor your meter when you’re not using water; if your eyes tell you you’re not using water and the meter tells you otherwise, you’ve got a problem that calls for a Sacramento plumber. Finally, check your toilet, fixtures, appliances, and sprinklers regularly.
Preventing Water Waste
Once you’ve identified the problem, how can you go about solving it?
- Get your family on board with water conservation.
- Make sure connections and fixtures are tight.
- Get new plumbing fixtures and new low-flow toilets; they use less water to do their jobs, saving water and money.
- Check for the WaterSense label, which denotes more water-efficient products.
- Check for wet floors and other signs of a slab leak caused by a water main leak.
- Remember that temperature swings and hard water can degrade fixtures; ask Ace Plumbing about water softening and water quality solutions. We’ll help you source and install them.
- If you have an irrigation system installed, make sure it’s watering correctly, and replace timers with water sensors.
- Don’t forget, a family of four can save about 16,000 gallons in water waste — about $2,000 per year off their water bill, on average — by staying on top of plumbing repairs and replacements. Puts the cost in perspective, doesn’t it?
Save Your Plumbing, Save Water, and Save the Planet
At the end of the day, water conservation is much more than saving water or saving money. It also helps to ensure there’s enough for everyone. Your home, your wallet, and your grandkids will thank you. And you don’t have to go it alone; from leak repairs to low-flow showerheads to efficient toilets and fixtures, Ace Plumbing is here to help. Call 916-455-4548 us today!
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FAQs
That adds up quickly — 10,000 gallons of water per household per year, and over 1 trillion gallons if you tally the national average. That may seem extreme, but once you understand where water waste comes from, you'll begin to understand that you're wasting water in ways you don't even realize.
How much water is wasted annually? ›
Water Stats
Household leaks can waste approximately nearly 900 billion gallons of water annually nationwide.
How much water is wasted yearly by a leaking faucet? ›
Faucet Leaks
A leaky faucet that drips at the rate of one drip per second can waste more than 3,000 gallons per year. That's the amount of water needed to take more than 180 showers!
How much water is wasted by a dripping tap in a year? ›
A dripping tap can waste 1080 liters of water yearly. Dipping tap wastes water. 15,140 drips are equal to one gallon of water and 347 gallons per year means a huge quantity of water.
How much water does a pipe leak waste? ›
A single drop of water once per minute, from one leaking fixture or pipe, will produce a gallon of water in just ten days. That water is being wasted, yes, but it's also going somewhere, and it will do damage in the process!
How much water is wasted a year from showers? ›
Consider this: The average shower lasts about eight minutes. Since the average showerhead has a water flow of 2.1 gallons per minute, each shower uses more than 16 gallons of water! Across the United States, we use more than one trillion gallons of water each year just for showering.
What wastes the most water? ›
Representing almost a third of a household's total indoor consumption, toilets are the biggest source of water use in your home. Every time you flush a facial tissue or feminine product, you waste five to seven gallons of water.
Can a dripping faucet increase water bill? ›
A leaking faucet can generally increase your water bill by over 10% monthly. That adds up to virtually 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year. Allow us to put that in terms a house owner can understand. 10,000 gallons of water yearly is about 180 showers.
How much water can be wasted by a leaky toilet each year? ›
A toilet that continues to run after flushing could be wasting 20-40 litres of water per hour – that's 175,000 to 350,000 litres per year, enough water to fill a swimming pool, and if unattended, could cost up to $556 per year. To check for a toilet leak, use a dye tablet or food colouring.
How many gallons of water can be wasted every year by average household leaks? ›
The Facts on Leaks:
The average household's leaks can account for more than 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year, or the amount of water needed to wash 270 loads of laundry. Household leaks can waste more than 1 trillion gallons annually nationwide.
It encourages Americans to help put a stop to the nearly 1 trillion gallons of water wasted from household leaks each year. The average home may lose almost 10,000 gallons of water every year, and 10% of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day. That's enough water to wash 300 loads of laundry.
Is leaving the tap running wasting water? ›
Even if your faucets aren't leaky or dripping, they are still important sources of wasting water at home. The common faucet has an average flow of 6 litres per minute. Reducing this flow for, let's say, half, will drastically cut on the amount of water wasted.
Does a dripping tap waste a lot of water? ›
A slow drip may not seem like a big problem, but it can add up to a huge amount of wasted water – up to 10,000 litres per year. That's more than a full bathtub each week. While a dripping tap can have a few different causes, most of the time it's due to the washer becoming degraded over time.
How much water does a 20 year old toilet use per? ›
Toilets made from the early 1980s to 1992 typically used 3.5 gallons per flush (13.2 liters) or more. Toilets made prior to 1980 typically used 5.0 to 7.0 or high gallons per flush (18.9 lpf to 26.5 lpf). The oldest toilets can use more than 8 gallons per flush (30 lpf).
How much water is wasted from a leaking faucet? ›
It may not seem like much. After all, fifteen thousand drops is a LOT of drops. But, if your faucet dripped once every second every day, all day, it would only take four and a half hours to reach one gallon. Every day you would waste 5 gallons of water or 2,082 gallons per year.
How much water is lost in leaking pipes? ›
According to a report from NPR, nationwide we're losing about 2 trillion gallons of clean drinking water each year to leaking pipes and faucets-approximately one-sixthof our water supply, quite literally "down the drain" each year!
How much water is lost each year? ›
That adds up quickly — 10,000 gallons of water per household per year, and over 1 trillion gallons if you tally the national average. That may seem extreme, but once you understand where water waste comes from, you'll begin to understand that you're wasting water in ways you don't even realize.
How much is 1 trillion gallons of water? ›
It's hard to imagine how much water is in 1 trillion gallons. To put it into perspective, it's roughly the amount of water that passes over Niagara Falls every four days. It's enough to fill 1.5 million Olympic-sized swimming pools. It's enough to supply water to 11 million households for a whole year.
What percentage of water is waste water? ›
Water is essential to keep us all alive, yet bucketloads are wasted by homes and businesses every day. Leaks and inefficient use mean that globally about 30% of water is wasted – the equivalent of around 9.5 trillion litres.
How much clean drinking water is left on earth? ›
Only about three percent of Earth's water is fresh water. Of that, only about 1.2 percent can be used as drinking water; the rest is locked up in glaciers, ice caps, and permafrost, or buried deep in the ground.
