Reasons Why Should We Save Water
- Save money ($37.80/person/year)
- Save water (12,600 Gallons/person/year)
- Save Environment
- Less gas/electric to heat water
- Less wear and tear on your plumbing, valves, pumps, etc.
- Less electric to pump water.
Most people don’t think about it but you can save water and save money by turning off the water to your sink while you are brushing your teeth! Most homes have a 4GPM, Gallons Per Minute, fitting on their bathrooms and kitchen sinks or even higher!
How Much Water is Used While Brushing Teeth
If you are one of those people that don’t think about how much water your sink it putting out, you will probably leave your water running while you brush your teeth. The average person will turn on the water, rinse off tooth brush, put tooth paste on tooth brush, brush teeth, spit a couple times, brush a little more, rinse tooth brush off, use a mouth rinse or mouth wash, swish that around a bit, spit it out, rinse out sink, and finally turn off water. This process will usually take 2 – 3 minutes to complete. During those 3 minutes you just used 12 gallons of water! The average person brushes their teeth 2 – 3 times a day, which would now make your water usage is at 36 gallons of water per person per day. The average person will also brush their teeth everyday which I will use 30.5 days for a month to make up for those with 28, 30, and 31 days. So now we are up to a single person brushing their teeth uses 1098 gallons of water to brush a single person’s teeth every month! Now there are 365.25 days in a year, so how many gallons of water does a single person use a year while brushing their teeth? The answer is, 13,129 gallons a year! Now let’s move onto the cost of this water usage.
The average cost of water is $0.003/gallon. So if a single person uses 13,129 gallons of water a year to brush their teeth, this costs $39.45/year for 1 person to brush their teeth. So take $39.45 and multiply this by how many people live in your home and you will see how much water is costing you just for you to keep your teeth clean! Now I didn’t factor in using hot water, so if you are using hot water to brush your teeth you are also paying to have that water heated either in your electricity bill or gas bill.
How Do I Save Money Brushing My Teeth
So how can you save money while brushing your teeth? Turn your water off unless you are using it. Don’t turn on your water and just let it run in the sink while you are brishing your teeth! Also, do not use hot water to brush your teeth, the amount of water used waiting for hot water to arrive at the sink, and letting it run while you are brushing your teeth is wasting water and also wasting gas or electric to heat that water. So make sure when you and your family is brushing their teeth, use cold water and only cold water, and turn it off while you are not using it. Let’s do a sinple comparision chart of how much money you could save while brushing your teeth.
Buy a 2GPM or lower faucet fitting for your kitchen sink and bathroom sink, this will allow you to use 50% less watter, while the water is turned on. I have seen some 1.5GPM, 1.6GPM, and even 1GPM faucet fittings! The fitting is normally called an aerator, which screws into the faucet.
NOTE: If your faucet is newer than 1992 you already should have at least a 2.5GPM fitting on your faucet. Federal Energy Policy Act of 1992 requires that all faucet fixtures manufactured in the USA are to restrict maximum water flow at or below 2.5GPM. So you shouldn’t be too bad, but you can still buy a more efficient fitting for your faucet! If your faucet was purchased before 1992 you probably have a faucet rated at 4GPM – 7GPM! So if your faucet is older than 1992, you NEED to buy a new one, the chart below is based off of 4GPM so if you have a 7GPM faucet then figure almost double the amounts!
I will base this off of letting water run while brushing your teeth using cold water, and compare it to turning off your water while brushing your teeth using cold water as well so I don’t have to factor in heating the water. Also remember you are also using a little bit if electricity to pump the water to the sink, which is not factored in either. So you will save more money on electric bill as well! This is a yearly chart:
| Persons | Turning Water Off w/2GPM fitting |
Leaving Water Run w/2GPM aerator | Leaving Water Run w/4GPM aerator |
Savings per Year |
| 1 | $1.65 | $19.73 | $39.45 | $37.80 |
| 2 | $3.30 | $39.46 | $78.90 | $75.60 |
| 3 | $4.95 | $59.19 | $118.35 | $113.40 |
| 4 | $6.60 | $78.92 | $157.80 | $151.20 |
| 5 | $8.25 | $98.65 | $197.25 | $189.00 |
Looking at this chart you aren’t saving a whole heck of a lot of money, but you are saving many gallons of water, and also saving a bit of money every year! So conserve water and save money and also help save the environment by going green in your home using these water conservation tips. For more tips on saving water or saving money on other utility bills continue reading throughout Go Green in Your Home!
February 9th, 2012 at 10:21 PM
prices???
133 gal. for $46.30
56 gal sewer = $29.86
sanitation (garabe pick up) $20.25
storm water charges $13.87 ( which is a joke as Texas has been in a very bad drough. All the above is based on water use unless they have changed the rules and as goverement goes they make their own rules and changes. Need to update your site. It is like only the rick can take showers or water their lawn.
February 9th, 2012 at 11:10 PM
Cecilea,
The prices are accurate in the information above. $0.003/gallon of water, at least that’s what I’m paying. Also the above calculations are yearly.
January 29th, 2013 at 11:39 AM
nice job explaining
July 12th, 2014 at 9:26 AM
I use about 1/2 cup of water to brush my teeth. I put water in a cup, put the toothpaste on the brush, brush my teeth, and then rinse with the 1/2 cup of water. I can’t believe that the average person lets their water run the whole time they are brushing.
February 9th, 2016 at 4:01 PM
Does running water while brushing teeth effect the world’s water table if one has a privately dug water well? I thought that there was only so much potable water in the world (planet earth) and that what goes around comes around ie: acid rain for instance. But I could be totally off the wall and those individuals I know and love who say that what they do has absolutely no effect on the rest of the planet could be right.
February 13th, 2016 at 1:37 PM
Jack,
Well my understanding of a private well is that when it rains the rain water soaks into the ground being filtered by your soil then go into your well where it is pumped up to you.
As far as potable water goes, your water is made from rain. You can also use water from the ocean that has been processed. US Navy ships create their own potable water from the ocean for their personnel to drink, cook, clean, and shower with.
As far as if you using more water will effect someone else in the world, I’m not sure of, but I would think that it will jot effect anyone else. I was taught that you can not create or destroy matter or energy, it is only transferred into a different type. For example you can not create energy as far as electricity, you are taking some other form of energy such as moving wind, moving water, etc and making electricity from it. Once that electricity is consumed by your electric fan, it is put back into motion energy or wind.
So even though you consume water it will eventually become water again, one way or another. It may be dirty water which can be filtered or processed to be able to drink again, but it is never destroyed or used up.
November 6th, 2016 at 1:43 AM
Has anyone questioned that rate of water flow? The rate of 4 gallons a minute is what you use to fill your bathtub with hot water! You can’t get that out of a basin faucet, even if it is “rated” 4 GPM. It’s fine to save water and save money, but foolish to “replace your faucet” because it can give you water faster. At a normal basin flow rate, I measured 3 quarts of water collected while brushing my teeth, not 12 gallons!
January 3rd, 2017 at 6:09 PM
Don Fortier,
The 4 gallons a minute is from a faucet with no faucet aerator on it and pre 1992. After 1992 most faucets I know of came with 2.5GPM aerators installed onto them. You don’t need to buy a new faucet, but at least install a faucet aerator, which just screws onto the end of your faucet and adds air to your water, and holding back the water, giving you better pressure as well as saving water. You probably have a newer faucet or have a faucet aerator installed. If you look at the end that water comes out of you will see there is a fitting that is screwed onto your faucet, this has a screen on it and is called a faucet aerator.