Green Plumbing: How to make your home run cheaper

Posted on: 9 October 2015

Becoming more environmentally conscious about your plumbing not only reduces energy bills, it also contributes to a cleaner, healthier environment for everyone around you. The following are two major benefits of green plumbing systems:

1. Cost

The truth about home plumbing is that eco-friendly systems are not much costlier than conventional systems. Even if they are slightly more expensive than your budget allows, consider the cost savings in reduced water consumption and energy bills, which implies that the initial cost will be recovered in time.

2. Health

The real benefits of having green plumbing go beyond your pocket. With an eco-friendly plumbing system your home will be healthier with an efficient supply of much cleaner water. Seen from that point of view, going green gives your loved ones better quality of life, and you can't attach a price tag to that.

A few tips for going green in your home

If you want to improve the state of your plumbing, these pointers will help you get started in order to get a cheaper, healthier system running:

1.Insulation

A lot of heat gets lost when you have pipes that are not insulated, particularly within the outside walls of your house. By insulating your pipes, you preserve heat as water travels from the heating system to the faucet. In addition, you cut down energy loss within the water heater while not in use, earning you more savings on utility expenditure.

2. Conditioned spaces

Instead of running your home's pipes through the exterior walls of the house, ask your plumber to run them through air conditioned spaces, which effectively prevents loss of heat as a result of being too close to the colder temperatures outside.

3. On-demand pumps

An on-demand hot-water circulation pump sends water to your faucets in just a few seconds. This is a money-saver in two ways: first, you don't waste energy by heating water only for it to sit unused in your pipes and reservoirs. In addition, you don't have to waste water by running the tap as you wait for hot water to reach the faucet.

4. New water heater

In many homes, energy for water heating accounts for up to 15 percent of total energy used in the home. If you have an older unit, ask your plumber to replace it with a newer, more efficient model which can considerably reduce the amount of energy spent on water heating.

There are many steps you can take if you want to improve the efficiency of your plumbing, but the first step is to have your current system thoroughly inspected by a qualified plumber. Once he or she knows the state of your home, they can recommend and implement systems that will run more efficiently, saving you a load of cash in the long run. Talk to your plumber to find out which green choices are right for your home.

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