Here is another little secret to saving water. Use a faucet aerator, and you will cut down on your water usage without noticing any changes in water pressure.
A faucet aerator is a small device that attaches to individual faucets throughout your house. You can put a faucet aerator on one faucet or on all of your faucets. It all depends on your needs, although obviously, you will get the most savings if you install the most faucet aerators.
The way a faucet aerator works is by reducing the water flow that comes out of the faucet by essentially mixing the water with air. You won’t notice the difference in the amount of water when you use it. In fact, the water pressure may even feel stronger after the aerator is installed. Meanwhile, the aerator is allowing you to save on your water usage by about half! If you do the math, you can probably save about 280 gallons of water a month. Plus, when you use less water, you use less oil or gas to heat that water. This gives you even more savings.
There are different types of faucet aerators, and they are all pretty inexpensive. We purchased ours for about $1.70 each. You may already have faucet aerators installed, but you want to make sure that they are the most efficient. All faucet aerators come with the flow rate imprinted on its side. You want faucet aerators with 2.75 gpm. The gmp stands for gallons per minute. For most faucets, aerators can be installed by simply screwing them on the end of the faucet by hand.
I think aerators are wonderful for all of the faucets in your home, but one of the best places for this little device is on the kitchen sink. (Showers can use up a lot of water, too, but they use something called a low-flow shower head, aerating or non aerating, and I will cover that topic in a future blog.) I don’t know how it is in your house, but my kitchen sink faucet always seems to be on, whether we are washing dishes or washing hands or just washing the countertops and the rest of the kitchen. So, I would suggest that you start with that faucet. Once you see how easy that first faucet aerator is to install, you’ll soon want to add more.
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