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Cornell Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet SS-3

How to Conserve Water in Your Home & Yard

This bulletin is designed to help you save money, protect your health and reduce the risk of damaging your septic system and the quality of your drinking water, lake, pond or stream by practicing water conservation in your home. These tips are best used in conjunction with the information in Cooperative Extension publication FS-1 - Your Septic System.

Conserving Water... Here?

New York has abundant water resources. In some parts of the country, water conservation by homeowners is often necessary, just to have enough water for basic needs. But why conserve here in water-rich New York?

The simplest answer is that conserving water saves money -- in many cases, very significant amounts of money. If you depend on your own well and septic system, the hundreds of extra gallons of water released each day will, over a period of years, continually saturate the soil in the septic system absorption field to a point where extensive repair or replacement is necessary. Replacing a septic system costs up to $5,000 (or more) depending on where you live. Conserving water can extend the life of the system and delay the need for repair.

If you live in an area serviced by a municipal water system, the greater your water use, the more you pay for water.

In addition to saving money, water conservation can help to prevent water pollution. Overloading a poorly designed septic system may cause nutrient and bacterial contamination of nearby lakes, streams and drinking water, even the water from your own well. The smaller the amount of water flowing through these systems, the lower the likelihood of pollution.

Pollution costs money, too. Excessive weed growth in a lake caused by nutrient enrichment from poorly functioning septic systems often means costly weed control measures paid for by your and your neighbors. Polluted home water wells, if they can be repaired at all, cost thousands of dollars to fix.

Water Use Around Your Home

The first step in understanding how to conserve water in your home is to know where water is used.

Most people use 50 to 70 gallons of water indoors each day and as much as the same amount outdoors, depending on the season. Indoors, three-quarters of all the water is used in the bathroom (Fig. 1). Outdoors, lawn and garden watering and car washing account for most of the water used.

How to Conserve Water Daily

Because such a large percentage of the water use is in the bathroom, that is where water conservation efforts should begin. You can install a few simple, inexpensive devices in the bathroom that can save a lot of water with no change in your lifestyle or your present habits. Many hardware and plumbing supply stores stock these items. They are:

• Toilet dams or rock-filled containers.These devices (one of which you can make yourself, Fig. 2) reduce the amount of water flowing out of the toilet by up to 25 percent. They do not affect its flushing ability. Never use a brick to accomplish the same effect -- particles from it could harm your plumbing. Always be sure that at least 3 gallons of water remain in the tank so it will flush properly.
• Low flow, water-saving showerheads. This plumbing device (Fig. 3) reduces the amount of water flowing through your shower by up to 50 percent, but increases its velocity so the shower feels the same. This also saves hot water. You may even be able to avoid buying a larger water heater, should the need arise.
• Faucet aerators. These devices restrict the amount of water going through your faucet by up to 50 percent but add bubbles so the flow of water appears the same. They can be installed on all of your faucets, not just the ones in your bathroom.

Other relatively simple things you can do in your home to further reduce water use are:

• Repair leaks in your faucets and toilets. A leaky faucet can waste 20 gallons or more per day. Leaky toilets, even though they are usually silent, can waste hundreds of gallons per day. To find out if your toilet leaks, put a little food coloring in the tank. If, without flushing, color appears in the bowl, you have a leak that should be repaired. Repairing a faucet is usually as simple as changing an inexpensive washer. Leaky toilets often can be repaired by adjusting the float arm or plunger ball.
• Use your dishwasher and clothes washer only when you have a full load. If you are purchasing a new clothes washer, choose one with variable load or suds-saver options. Many dishwashers are also now available with water-saving options. If you already have these options, use them whenever possible.
• If you are building a new home or remodeling an old one, consider installing "low flush" toilets. These toilets use 1 to 2 gallons per flush instead of the 3 to 5 gallons used by conventional toilets. They are readily available and, although they cost more, they can save you a lot of money in the long run through decreased water and energy use.

Outdoor uses of water are often high volume. Nevertheless, there are ways you can save water. Try these:

• Attach a pistol-type sprayer to the end of your garden hose. In addition to enabling you to adjust the rate of flow, this device keeps water from continuing to run during the short periods when you put down the hose without turning it off (while you are washing your car, for example).
• Water your lawn only when necessary. It takes 660 gallons of water to supply 1,000 square feet of lawn with 1 inch of water. This is nearly the same amount of water as you use inside the house in an entire week! Water your lawn when it begins to show signs of wilting -- when the grass does not spring back when you step on it -- rather than on a regular schedule.

Saving Water in Special Situations

Sometimes it is necessary to use extra measures to reduce even further the amount of water you are using in your house. Although useful in any situation, these techniques may be especially helpful or even necessary in some cases, when water levels are high around your house, your septic system shows signs of failing or your community water system temporarily loses capacity to supply adequate amounts of water.

Indoors, you should consider these changes:

• Take short showers instead of baths. A four-minute shower can use as little as 8 gallons of water, while a bath needs 50 to 60 gallons.
• Avoid flushing your toilet unnecessarily. NEver use it as a wastepaper basket to dispose of cigarette butts or tissue paper.
• Turn off the faucet while you are shaving or brushing your teeth or hand washing dishes.
• Avoid running water in the shower while you are shampooing or soaping. Most people step away from the water to do this anyway. Many water-saving shower heads come with a button to shut off the flow without changing the mix of hot and cold water.

Outdoors, try these:

• Use mulch around trees and shrubs and in garden beds. This greatly reduces the amount of water lost through evaporation and so reduces the need for watering.
• Consider using a drip irrigation system in your garden. The system supplies water only to the root zones of plants. In addition to saving water, it reduces weeding because it doesn't water the areas betwene rows and hills of crops.
• Use only plant varieties that are well adapted to your locality and soil conditions. Less suitable varieties may need greater amounts of fertilizer and/or water just to stay alive.
• Avoid watering the lawn. Your lawn may turn brown in the middle of the summer, but this does not mean that it is dead. Rather, the grass is dormant and will regrow when rain and cooler weather return.
• Use the water from your roof downspouts for watering your garden and flower beds.

Where to Go for Help

If you need help in locating water-saving devices or other advice about water conservation, contact your local health department or Cornell Cooperative Extension.

For More Information About Your Water and Septic System...

Check out other fact sheets in the series.

• SS-1 -- What to Do if Your Septic System Fails
• SS-2 -- Maintaining Your Septic System: Special Considerations for Shoreline Property Owners
• SS-4 -- Your Septic System: What You Need to Know When Buying or Selling a House
• SS-5 -- Your Septic System: Considerations When Building or Remodeling a Home

plus Extension publication...

• FS-1 -- Your Septic System