Reduce Water Usage

By making small adjustments in your daily routine, you alone can make a significant difference in saving water in Abilene as saving money in your pocket.

In the Bathroom

Bathrooms are by far where we use the largest amount water in the home. Typically, 70% of a family's water use is in the bathroom.

• Take shorter showers. Showers use 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Any over 10 minutes is considered wasteful. Cutting back your shower time by even one or two minutes can save up to 700 gallons a month.
• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth (or shaving). By turning the water of after getting your toothbrush (or razor) wet, you can save about 3 gallons of water each time averaging 8 to 10 gallons a day.
• Don't use the toilet as a trash can. Instead, use a garbage can and save 3.5 gallons of water per unnecessary flush.
• Plug stop before turning on the faucet when running a bath. A bath uses on average 36 gallons of water. By adjusting the water while the tub fills, instead of waiting till it is the right temperature to plug, will save several gallons of water.

In the Kitchen

• Wait until the dishwasher is full to run. Whether it is full or has four dishes, the run cycles use the same 15 gallons of water to clean.
• Opt for using the dishwasher versus hand washing. Running water while washing dishes for five minutes on average wastes 10 gallons of water. If you prefer washing by hand, try washing all the dishes first while the tap is off, then rinse all at the same time.

Laundry

• Pick the appropriate water level setting. Most washers offer small, medium, and large options.
• Wash full loads. Waiting till the washer is full is even better than above when it come to being efficient with your water usage.
• Measure laundry detergent. Using too much can cause high-efficiency washers to use more water during the rinse cycle.
• Pick the right soil setting for the load. Choosing the heavy-duty setting when it is not needed can use more water and extend wash time. The normal setting works for most loads.

Outdoors

Outdoor water use accounts for more than 30% of total household water use, on average.

• Water each sprinkler station for 15 minutes. A healthy and lush lawn only needs 1" of water a week. Anything more then 15 minutes of watering in an area is most likely wasteful. On average, people waste 50% of the water they use on their lawns due to overwatering.
• Cover your swimming pool. Due to evaporation, covering your pool can save hundreds of gallons of water each month.
• Properly manage your home's water irrigation system. By doing so, you can reduce the amount of water used by 15%, averaging nearly 7,600 gallons of water annually.