Cut Your Water Bill by a Third

When considering how to conserve on water in the home, people are usually content with putting a brick in the back of the toilet. This will save a certain amount of water, but you will not notice a difference on your next water bill. One way to save a massive amount of water if your a gardener is to put rain barrels on your downspouts. I have read that the average home owner can save up to 1300 gallons a year by this method alone. However, this will still not make much of a dent in your water bill.

Believe it or not, most water used in a home isn't used at all; it ends up going down the drain or being flushed away. The average home can spend a third of their water bill on flushing alone. There are ways to minimize this, but that is all they do, minimize. If you're truly interested in conserving water on a grand scale you should consider installing a separate water system in your home. Start by disconnecting the drains from your bathroom sinks, showers and tubs and running all of that drain water to a separate holding tank. You can purchase a thousand gallon tank for about five hundred dollars.

From your tank install an overflow pipe into your septic tank or sewer using a p-trap to keep sewer gas from backing up into the tank and fowling the water. Now before we get ahead of ourselves, keep in mind that we are not going to use this water for anything other than flushing our toilets. From your tank you will need to install a small pump which feeds to a sand filter much like on a swimming pool. This filter will keep you from having to clean your toilets everyday by removing soap scum and hair from the water. Do not pipe your kitchen sink drain into this system as the grease from the sink will ruin the system in no time.

Back to our sand filter, from the sand filter install a line to a pre-pressurized holding tank then pipe forward to your toilets. This will cut your water bill from one quarter to one third depending on how many people live in the home. To increase savings you can install another secondary system much like the one just described and use rain water to fill it, this system can be used exclusively for your showers and for watering your garden. According to the woodland direct website for every inch of rain a thousand square feet of roof will produce six hundred gallons of water. If you caught all of the water off of your roof for one year you could possibly cut your water bill by another third.

I thought of this idea about twenty years or so ago and I am in the process of installing the system in my home. A few years ago I saw that the Swedes or some Danish speaking nation have designed a closed system that accomplishes the same ends and have patented the system. I still haven't seen them on the market, but that doesn't mean anything. However, just because they patented a system doesn't mean you cannot build one for yourself. Before you go cutting into your drain system consult with a licensed plumber to insure that you don't contaminate your drinking water. As a precaution, keep each system separate from the others which will help prevent cross contamination. Good luck and good plumbing; also before you do anything, do your homework.