If your family is anything like mine, then the bathroom is one of the most used rooms in the house, we use it constantly. Showers and bath time, especially with the little one, can use up so much water and energy. When we built our new house, I knew that we should make a conscious effort to make the bathroom more eco-friendly.
Today I share those tips with you in an effort to help save energy, save our planet and save your wallet from those expensive utility bills. You don’t have to join the latest climate change protest to make a difference, these small changes at home can help.
Here are eight easy to implement tips to make your bathroom more eco-friendly with some eco-friendly bathroom products.
Add low flow fixtures
Low flow fixtures can reduce water consumption considerably, but what are they?
Low-flow bathroom fixtures and fittings such as bathroom sinks, toilets, urinals, eco-friendly bathroom shower, and taps can make a huge change when it comes to saving water and energy. They work by using gravity to create more pressure to flush waste away more efficiently while using less water. Check out how a low-flow showerhead can save you money in this article from SFGate.
It is estimated by installing a low flow fixture you could save at least 20% of water per use.
If you tend to use the shower every day, then a low flow showerhead should be installed. A low flow showerhead restricts the amount of water that comes out of the shower while keeping enough water pressure to provide adequate cleaning. The same technology is used with low flow faucets. Less water comes out as the design of the faucet restricts the water flow.
Use LED Bulbs
Not only can an eco-friendly bathroom save more water, but it can save you on your energy bills too.
LED bulbs can be up to 90% energy efficient, which means that 90% of the energy being used is converted into light energy while only 10% is turned into heat. Compare that to a traditional bulb that loses 80% of its energy to heat, and you can see the massive difference in energy saving. An eco-friendly bathroom decor must have LED bulbs to complete the eco-friendly bathroom renovation. Here are some cool LED bulb decor ideas from Pinterest.
Ditch the regular towels and use organic
Organic bathroom towels are one of the cheapest ways that you can help the environment today, sure they are a little more expensive to buy than ordinary towels but long term they are a money and energy saver.
Organic bathroom towels are a great way to make your bathroom more eco-friendly right away. Organic towels are made out of organic cotton, which absorbs more water than conventional towels, which means you can use them more and dry them less, saving on electricity.
Natural body products for the win
Think of how many branded products you use in your bathroom per year. How many of these are natural and how many of these companies care for the environment?
By using natural products in your bathroom, you are getting a cool bathroom vanity as well as you can help the eco-friendly companies, help the environment, and stop giving your money to corporations that litter the earth with harmful plastics.
Eco-friendly companies often don’t use disposable packaging, which is an added bonus for the environment. Eco-friendly bathroom accessories are usually amazing for your skin, smell beautiful, and don’t cost much more than their harmful equivalent.
Turn down the water temperature
This is a simple tip, but often one that people don’t think of. By turning down the water temperature by a few degrees, you can save the environment.
Best of all, turning down the water temperature can have two separate eco-friendly benefits.
Firstly by turning down the temperature of the water, your boiler doesn’t have to work as hard to heat the water up, this, in turn, uses less electricity. Here Popsugar will help you with useful tips on saving electricity.
The second benefit of turning down the heat has a phycological effect on the person in the shower. A person in a colder shower is less likely to stay in there as long as someone in a warmer shower, this results in less water being used. Here Dummies shares some useful tips to control your water usage.
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Fix leaks to save the environment
You may think a little leak here, or there doesn’t do that much damage to the environment, but you would be wrong. A small leak over the space of a year can waste hundreds of gallons of water.
Tapwater which drips at a rate of 1 drip a second can waste over 3,000 gallons of water a year, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to you that over 10% of homes consume more than 90 gallons of water a day. What a waste. Here Diynetwork shows some easy steps to fix your water leak.
One of the most common fixtures in the bathroom to cause a leak in the bathroom toilet. If your toilet has a leak you should either fix or replace it right away, if you need to replace it, you can find an affordable one at the Bathroom Supastore.
Before you think you don’t have a leak, you should know that most holes are tough to detect. Some can be heard, but often leaks are silent. A right way of knowing if you have a leak is to check your water usage on a monthly basis.
An average family of 4 should not be using over 12,000 gallons of water a month. If your family does, you more than likely have a leak in your home. A right way of knowing if you have a leak is by using a water meter.
For using a water meter to detect a leak you should tell everyone at home not to use any water between a specific time (a few hours works best). Then take a reading before and after the allotted time. If the meter is different, you have a leak somewhere.
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Add new fragrance with cool floor tiles
Yes, you read it right. Bathroom flooring can be eco-friendly too. You can change your bathroom tiles, and your bathroom can be transformed as eco-friendly as well as it is going to look awesome. There are many options available while you are considering buying floor tiles—wooden (Cork & bamboo), Ceramic, Glass tiles are the examples of eco-friendly bathroom floor tiles.
Green clean your bathroom
There are many bathroom cleaning accessories that are being used in the bathroom which are harmful, if one can change the way of cleaning by using some DIY bathroom with natural products, or use a natural air freshener, then it can be a great step towards the eco-friendly bathroom.
Read more>> How to Clean Windows: 10 Ultimate Tips
Conclusion
There are many eco-friendly things like bathroom paint, bathroom mats; countertops are available in the market, but you cannot install all of them right away. Most of the tips that are listed above are common and won’t require a lot of work to implement… So go on, apply these tips above and let us know how much money you save on your utility bills in the comments below.