Q: I recently moved to a state where we have to conserve water. We used to live near the Ohio River, and water usage was not a concern. I need some ideas on what I can do to conserve.
A: You failed to mention the area of the country to which you have moved, but I venture to guess it is one of the Western states, where drought has forced major changes in consumption.
The bathrooms and the laundry are two areas of the home where water usage is high but can be controlled by installing modern equipment.
In the laundry, a new front-loading washing machine will drastically reduce water consumption. You will save not only water but detergents and softeners.
In the bathroom, the toilet is the major water-consuming appliance. The new 1.6-gallon toilets, mandated by law, reduce the water usage by about half of what the older 3-gallon toilet tanks use each time the toilet is flushed.
You could install new toilets or, as I have heard, one fellow would use buckets to collect the cold water from the shower while he waited for the water to warm up. He then used the water to flush his toilets.
Waiting for the water to warm up the pipes wastes a lot of water. By some estimates the average household wastes up to 10,000 gallons of water each year waiting for the hot water to get to the faucet. Here, too, there are devices to help in conserving a limited resource.
Hot-water-on-demand pumps can be installed that keep hot water at the tap all the time. In new construction a third water pipe is installed to form a hot water loop from the fixtures to the water heater, where an electric pump circulates the water either 24/7 or at certain times that can be set at the pump's timer.
In existing homes, installing a third water pipe might be too costly, so manufacturers such as TYCO, Divert-it and Grundfos Pumps have devised circulating hot water and storage systems that can be installed without replumbing the whole house.
The TYCO system requires a pump at each fixture, which would also require an electrical connection at each fixture.
The Divert-it system stores the water in a tank to be used later to flush the toilets. Maybe the guy who used the buckets invented this one.
The Comfort Series Instant Hot Water System by Grundfos Pumps utilizes a bypass valve at the plumbing fixture that allows the entire hot water system to work from one single pump.
The Grundfos system uses the existing cold water pipe in place of a third loop, eliminating expensive retrofitting or additional pumps.
The presence of hot water at the valve will slightly temper the cold water when the faucet is first turned on, but cold water arrives quickly at the fixture.
Most pumps retail for around $320 each and require an electrical connection. The Grundfos pump kit includes one bypass valve with additional valves available for under $40 each. By installing a bypass valve at each fixture you could save thousands of gallons of water annually.
Circulating pumps are available nationwide through plumbers and plumbing wholesalers.
(Dwight Barnett is a certified master inspector with the American Society of Home Inspectors. Write to him with home-improvement questions at PO Box 268, Evansville, IN 47702 or send him e-mail at d.barnett@insightbb.com.)
