With a large majority of people continuing to work from home and using bathroom faucets, fixtures, tubs and showers many more times a day, there is renewed interest in products that perform well while not wasting water. The gold standard for knowing whether a product adheres to strict guidelines is whether a product meets the EPA’s WaterSense guidelines.
Current technologies have evolved to enable products to deliver near high-volume water flow without really using high-water flow. Impressive right? You may already know about these water-saving tips, but just in case, here is some helpful information about what’s available:
BATHTUBS
Baths use about twice as much water as a shower, a bath using around 25-50 gallons of water, as compared to a 10-minute shower (equipped with a low-flow showerhead), which uses about 25 gallons of water. One way to save water is by filling the tub only halfway. Don’t wait for the water to become hot before plugging the drain – plug it first and adjust the temperature as the tub fills.
If you have a free-standing tub, make sure you buy a WaterSense-compliant floor-standing tub filler. A typical WaterSense-compliant tub filler will quickly fill your tub: 7 gpm (gallons per minute) at 45 PSI is pretty quick!
TOILETS
Ultra high-efficiency toilets can help you conserve water in the bathroom by saving up to 13,000 gallons of water a year. Recent advancements have allowed toilets to use 1.28 gallons per flush or less while still providing equal or superior performance. This is 20 percent less water than the current federal standard of 1.6 gallons per flush.
The WaterSense label is used on toilets that are independently certified to meet rigorous criteria for both performance and efficiency. Only water-saving toilets that complete the certification process can earn the WaterSense label.
FAUCETS
There is the possibility of saving upwards of 3,000 gallons a year just by using a faucet with an aerator and by turning it off while shaving or brushing your teeth. Old habits die hard, but once you see how much water can be saved, we think it’s worth the effort. WaterSense labeled faucets and faucet accessories (such as aerators) are high–performing, water–efficient fixtures that will help you reduce water use in your home and save money on water bills.
By retrofitting your entire bathroom with WaterSense labeled fixtures, you can save even more. If your existing faucet looks like it’s leaking even a tiny bit – this could be the time to switch it out for a newer, more efficient faucet.
STEAM SHOWER
We couldn’t talk about saving water in the bathroom without mentioning that our steam shower products also conserve water. There is a misconception that a steam shower is wasteful, and we are here to dispute that with some facts: the average shower uses roughly 17 gallons of water and lasts for around 8 minutes.
Here’s how a steam shower unit performs: For a typical 40 minute steam session that includes a 20 minute warm up to temperature, our system would use 1.2 gallons to warm up and 0.2 gallons for maintenance so approximately a total of about 1.4 gallons for a steam session.
For more tips from the pros, we encourage you to check out the EPA’s guide on saving water.
