When you turn on the shower in the morning, how long do you let it run before you step in? When you’re getting ready for work, how long does the faucet run as you brush your teeth or wash your face? Everyone uses their plumbing on a daily basis, and it’s important to be aware of how much water you use each day. At Gladiator Repipe in San Jose, we’re here to make sure your pipes are working properly, and if you need copper repiping, then we’re here to help. In this post, we’re going to take a look at just how much water you may be using on each and every day!
Daily Showers
If you live by yourself, then you may not be too concerned about how long of a shower you take each morning. You might let the shower run for a minute or two while it warms up, but is it really worth it to waste that water? A standard showerhead has a flow rate of five gallons per minute, so if you let it run for two minutes, then that’s 10 gallons of water down the drain! If water temperature is the reason you turn on the shower before you get in, then installing new piping and checking your water heater can be the easiest solutions. Our team can handle both of those things!
The average shower lasts around six minutes, so by the time you’re done showering, you’ve used about 30 gallons of water (if you have a standard showerhead). Installing a low-flow showerhead can reduce that flow rate to two gallons per minute, which can significantly decrease your daily water use.
Flushing Toilets
Depending on the size and layout of your home, you may have multiple toilets on multiple floors. From the powder room off of the front hallway to the master bathroom, every toilet gets used at least once a day. The number of flushes obviously affects the amount of water that is used, and that number will of course go up with more people in the house. If there are two of you living in the house, and each of you flushes a toilet three times a day, then that’s six flushes. A modern toilet will use around 1.6 gallons per flush, so that’s approximately 9.6 gallons per day. If you have older toilets in your home, then you could be using five to seven gallons per flush, which would push the daily water consumption significantly higher.
Be Mindful
Taking showers and flushing toilets are just two of the ways water is used in your home on a daily basis. Washing dishes, brushing your teeth, and other tasks at a sink will use water as well, and it’s important to be mindful of how long the faucet is on and how much water you’re using. All in all, you could be using more than 100 gallons of water in a single day! If water temperature and/or pressure are the reasons that you’re leaving the tap on longer, then contact us today to see what we can do for you. Copper repiping could be the key to helping you use less water in your home on a daily basis.
