Benefits of Water Efficiency
Save Water, Save Money
The average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water
and sewer bill. By making just a few simple changes to use water
more efficiently, you could save about $170 per year. If all U.S.
households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would
save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion
dollars per year! Also, when we use water more efficiently, we reduce
the need for costly water supply infrastructure investments and
new wastewater treatment facilities.
Save Water, Save Energy
It takes a considerable amount of energy to deliver and treat
the water you use everyday. American public water supply and treatment
facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—enough
electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year.
For example, letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about
as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.
By reducing household water use you can not only help reduce the
energy required to supply and treat public water supplies but also
can help address climate change. In fact:
- If one out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient
fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per
year—avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That
is equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road
for one year!
- If 1 percent of American homes replaced their older, inefficient
toilets with WaterSense labeled models, the country would save
more than 38 million kWh of electricity—enough to supply
more than 43,000 households electricity for one month.
For more information, see Saving
Water Saves Energy.
Water Efficiency and the Environment
Depleting reservoirs and groundwater can put water supplies, human
health, and the environment at serious risk. Lower water levels
can contribute to higher concentrations of natural or human pollutants.
Using water more efficiently helps maintain supplies at safe levels,
protecting human health and the environment.
For more information, please visit the What
Are The Environmental Benefits of Water Efficiency? page.
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