Go Leaner and Greener with Your Plumbing Repairs

Just one leaking faucet in your home can waste nearly 700 gallons of water each year Now multiply that by the  number of homes, offices, restaurants, hospitals, factories, etc. that have at least one leaky faucet and  we've got catastrophic waste. Every little bit adds up, and every little thing you do to improve your plumbing efficiency matters! Here are five ways in which you can go green with simple plumbing repairs and improvements.

Go tankless with your water heater. Rather than continuously heating an entire tank of water, tankless models heat what you need. They can save up to 50% on your bill and even earn a nice tax credit for you. Tankless heaters have improved greatly in the past few years in cost, ease of installation and efficiency, making them that much more appealing over the old-fashioned and wasteful types of heaters.

Fix that leaking faucet. This is most often a quick and easy do-it-yourself project, which simply involves replacement of a seal, O-ring or washer. Leaky faucets cost the homeowner, waste valuable resources and can be very annoying to anyone who has to listen to them. Especially in a home with multiple bathrooms, a utility and laundry room and even outside garden hoses, repairing leaking faucets is a wise and worthy investment.

Insulate pipes. Most especially those that are housed in exterior walls, pipes are highly susceptible to outdoor temperatures. This means you have to spend more money and use lots of energy to adjust the temp to your specifications. Insulation can maintain thermal stability by as much as two degrees and it a fairly simple job, depending on the location of the pipes.

Minimize water flow in showers and sinks. A low flow shower head can cost as you little as 10 dollars, yet saves you up to 30% in water use. A simple faucet aerator starts at around five dollars and will also have a positive green impact on waste and savings.

Stop flushing money and resources. Inefficient toilets waste so much water, some governments have considered banning or fazing them out. There are many green options available in single-flush, dual-flush and pressure-assist flush that will conserve water and save you money. Many models can be installed by any capable do-it-yourself enthusiast for even greater savings.

Increasing the green factor of your plumbing will save you money and contribute to the global effort of conservation and resource management. Although it is easy to adhere to the logic that a few drips here or  there don't add up to much, when you tally up a population the final figures add up to millions, in some  cases trillions of gallons in waste. How much of that is avoidable in your home?