Are you flushing $580 down the toilet?
A tap that leaks only one drop of water per second adds up to 10,000 litres of water lost over the course of a year — that’s the equivalent of 70 baths! True: the cost isn’t going to break the bank — about $30 per year — but the impact on pipes and sink fixtures can be corrosive, not to mention it’s a terrible waste of a valuable resource.
A leaky faucet or toilet is money going down the drain. Spend a weekend—or a few hundred dollars on a plumber—and you’ll save a chunk of change in subsequent years.
Romana King
To fix a leaky faucet try your hand at changing the fixture’s washer (for a good how-to go to the HowStuffWorks website) or call a plumber.
But not all leaks are easily noticeable. For instance, a toilet that continues to run after flushing wastes up to 200,000 litres per year — the equivalent of 1,400 baths. That’s like flushing $580 down your toilet each year!
To determine if you have a leaky toilet place a few drops of food colouring (or a dye test tablet, but food colouring works just fine) into your toilet tank. The tank is the back section of your toilet, that has a lid you lift off. Now don’t flush. After 10 to 15 minutes check your toilet bowl. If the colour of the water in the bowl has changed, your toilet has a leak and should be repaired. You can attempt this task yourself (here’s a handy how-to guide) or you spend a few hundred dollars on a plumber.
Make these small changes and you could save more than $600 on your water bill each year.
