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I believe if we tried we could cut our water use in half. There are many more ways other than the ones I have in my report. If you have any ideas of your own, please contribute your comments to the post for all our HealthSufficiency family and friends to share. Sometimes some things we don’t think are worthwhile are great ideas.

Like the young man who went into one of the larger toothpaste companies and told the president of the company if he paid him a sizable amount of money, he would give him his idea on how he could double his toothpaste business. The company president agreed, and the young man said, okay here’s what you do, make the hole in all of your toothpaste tubes twice the size it is now, this will double the use of your toothpaste, and double your sales.

Here are some of my water saving ideas:
The first thing to do is to check your entire plumbing system for leaks - leaking faucets, water pipes, etc. If you don’t think a leaking faucet will waste water, put the stopper in a sink where one is leaking overnight.

The toilet is the worst water waster of all. Flush the toilet and wait until it supposedly shuts off, then listen at the tank for a hissing or trickling sound, if you hear a noise here’s what to do, check the rubber tank ball or flapper in the middle of the toilet tank at the bottom. If the ball is old and has lost its shape, replace it. Also using a fine steel wool pad, clean off the seat under the ball till it is smooth. If the noise is from the ballcock valve on the left side of the tank and is the type with the quarter inch rod with a metal or plastic float ball, lift up on the rod, if the noise stops, then starts again after you let go, chances are your ballcock valve is bad and needs replaced. If when you are holding the quarter inch rod up and the water leaks out of the tank, and you have already replaced the rubber ball or the flapper, check the lift wire or the chain from the ball to the handle, and make sure it is not dropping the ball wrong, or is on a bind.

When you flush your toilet at any time, always wait until you are sure it shuts off, especially if you are leaving the house.

If you are leaving your house for a vacation or only a couple of days its a good idea to shut your main water valve off. It might save a great water loss, as well as a lot of damage to your home. Here’s why.

I had a plumbing call to a home where the people had gone on a vacation for two weeks. The last person to leave the home flushed the toilet and did not wait to be sure it shut off before leaving.

Here’s what happened:

The toilet stopped up when the last person flushed it. The rubber ball did not drop back straight and the water ran over the toilet bowl for two weeks.

Here’s what they found when they returned home after two weeks:

- The bathroom and the kitchen floors had warped.

- The tile and the carpet was ruined.

- The plaster ceiling in the kitchen had fallen.

- The woodwork and the doors were all warped.

- The Formica counter tops in the kitchen had lifted.

- Below the kitchen in the basement, the father and son’s very expensive car and train set were severely damaged.

Now this was in the winter time, and the furnace was left on to keep the water pipes from freezing. The water went down from the first floor and leaked onto the furnace which made steam, the steam went into every room in the house and caused the wallpaper to fall off the walls in every room.

Look at the water wasted here as well as the $ cost

- When using your bathroom or kitchen sink, don’t leave the water run when you don’t need to.

- Take shorter showers.

- Turn off the shower when you are lathering up.

- When using your washing machine, and only washing a small amount of clothes, set the water level for less water.

Try this:

Take the quarter inch refill tube that goes from the toilet ballcock valve into the overflow pipe in the toilet tank, and fasten it so the water from it goes into the tank and helps to fill it faster. You can only do this if when your toilet is flushed and retraps itself.

While the toilet is refilling after being flushed, it doesn’t take as much water as is put into the bowl from the refill tube. Every little bit helps.

Here is a good water saver:
If the water pressure in your home is more than you need. Do this.

Close your main water valve until your pressure slows down some, but is still enough for your needs. Or do this to the smaller valves under your kitchen and bathroom sin. A lot of homes have a lot more pressure than they need.

Underground water leaks

Sometimes there are water leaks underground between your home, the street, or your outside water supply.

These go undetected for years. Here’s one way you can check your line for a leak. Put your ear on the water meter in your home and put your finger in your other ear. If you hear a hissing sound like pressure releasing you probably have a leak in your line, be sure no one is running water in the house when doing this. Most of the time a leak underground will eventually come to the top of the ground, but I have had some leaks that I found had worked their way into the sewer line under it, and had been leaking for years.

To check this, remove the clean out plug on your sewer line to the street. Put your ear at that point and listen, if you have a leak you will be able to hear it in the sewer line. Again be sure no one is running water…

Here are some ways a city could save water:

In areas where the water pressure is greater than needed, the city water department could install a pressure regulator valve at the water meter in these homes to control the amount water used.

Another good water saver would be to require in new home construction that a small spring valved wall hung urinal be installed in all bathrooms .

A toilet when flushed uses up to 6 gallons of water – insist on low water usage toilet systems in all public toilets.

A small wall hung spring valved urinal uses less than one gallon.

Look at the water that could be saved here:.

Here is a 25 year Water Leak…

I worked as a maintenance plumber in one of the larger hospitals in the area. Here’s what I found one day.

The kitchen of the hospital had a tile floor, and at one area the tile floor was always hot, so much so the workers were always complaining of being too warm.

One day while working on the water piping, we had to turn off the water for a long time.

I later happened to kneel down on the floor where it was always hot. It had cooled down. When we turned the water back on we found a water line leaking under the floor where it was always hot. We repaired the hot water pipe, turned the water back on, and the floor stayed cool…

I then began to explain to the kitchen supervisor what we had found. She said she had worked here for twenty five years and the tile floor in that are had always been hot…

A twenty five year water leak. Can you believe the water loss here? I bet if we checked all over the good old U.S.A. we could find some water being wasted.

Water conservation is important, you can help by sharing you ideas on water saving with us!

Lee Porter an author and entrepreneur for HealthSufficiency, a continuing health, personal development and life dynamic education and business development company helping people to be meet their potential to lead healthy, prosperous and successful lives.

Tags: homewater savings, water conservation, stop leaks, water leak prevention