Upgrade Your Bathroom To Reduce Energy Waste
It's no secret that bathrooms are one of the most energy consuming rooms of the house. With baths filled to the brim with lovely hot water, continual flushes of the toilet and the constant running of taps; it's common knowledge that bathrooms are a great consumer of water and energy within the home. Such usage is contributing to the effects of climate change, not to mention clocking up your utility bills. Ensuring your bathroom's as energy efficient as possible will reduce your carbon footprint and will certify that you're "doing your bit" for the environment whilst saving you money.
The older the bathroom the less energy efficient it is, this is because designers are constantly finding ways to improve products to ensure optimum performance with the least energy and water usage. If your bathroom's exceeding ten years of age it will need to be upgraded to confirm ultimate energy efficiency.
Toilets have previously been renowned for contributing to inconceivable amounts of water being wasted. Toilets in fact, are responsible for around 30% of water used in the average household. However, designers have been improving the efficiency of toilets, particularly over the last decade. Newer, water efficient models can save up to 4 litres of water per flush compared to their inefficient counterparts, and can save incredible amounts of water per year. Dual flush toilets also give you the ability to use a "half flush" for liquid waste, saving even more water.
Showers have also continued to be developed and the water power levels have improved, giving you a far more enjoyable shower experience. Although they're incredibly pleasant to use, some power showers can actually use more water than a bath. Instead of opting for a power shower, consider a water-saving shower head that provides the same power whilst minimising water waste. For bath and shower mixers, small shower heads are useful for hair washing and similar tasks when you don't need to take a full shower - saving water.
Heated towel rails can be extremely efficient heat outlets for bathrooms due to their dual purpose quality. They can heat the room whilst drying several towels at once. Although they may not immediately strike you as energy saving devices if you're someone who puts wet towels immediately in the dryer due to lack of radiator space you can save a significant amount of electricity by drying multiple towels on a heated towel rail. Dryers consume vast amounts of electricity and drying towels on a radiator seems more rational if you have the central heating on anyway.
When choosing a new bath try to choose a model that is narrower in width. This means you can have a deeper bath and use less water and energy filling it. Wide baths consume so much water and energy to fill with hot water. Corner baths are also an alternative which work in smaller bathrooms and use up less water.
There are many other ways to improve the efficiency of your bathroom without purchasing new products. Simple bathroom maintenance is incredibly important; leaks are accountable for an average of 10,000 gallons of water each year per household. According to Water Sense a constant running toilet can waste over 200 gallons of water per day! Upgrading your bathroom suite may be initially costly but can be a great money saving and environmentally friendly investment, in addition to improving the appearance of your bathroom!
About the Author
Written by Stephanie Staszko on behalf of Branded Bathrooms http://www.brandedbathrooms.com/ this post was originally published on Home and Garden Easy and can be found here http://www.homeandgardeneasy.com/upgrade-your-bathroom-to-reduce-energy-waste
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