Thursday, June 11, 2009

Ideal Bite: Take a Leak...and Fix It - Save Water Week


Ideal Bite: Take a Leak...and Fix It - Save Water Week
June 11, 2009 Trouble viewing this email? Read it online...
idealbite - a sassier shade of green
FIXING LEAKS
Take a Leak...and Fix It - Save Water Week
If 10,000 Biters fix a small leak, in a month we'll save over $1 million on our water/sewer bills.
Wanna save water in a whiz? When leaks gotta go, they gotta go. Leaks can waste a surprisingly high amount of H2O - fix 'em, and urine for some decent water/sewer bill savings.
The Benefits
  • Telling water waste to piss off. Even a slow drip can waste more than 100 gallons of water per week.
  • Doing a (pee-pee) dance thanks to lower bills. Plumbers can cost $50 or more per hour, but a medium-size leak can set you back over $100 per month.

Personally Speaking
Jen tried the dye test (see Wanna Try? below) to check for leaks in her toilets, but since she used green dye it was tough to see, so she suggests trying something a little less water-colored, like red.


Wanna Try?
15-minute, surefire way to find out if you've got a leak:
  • Turn off all the H2O inside and outside your house, then look for your water meter. If the meter's hand is moving, you've got a leak. If it's not moving, note the position of the meter and recheck it in 10 minutes. If it moved, you've got a slow leak.
For toilets:
  • If your toilet sounds like it's running long after you flush or you have to jiggle the handle to get it to stop, it's prolly wasting water. 
  • The dye test: Flush the toilet, then add a teaspoon of food coloring to the tank - don't flush it. After an hour, check the bowl. If you can see any dye, your toilet's leaking.

  • GreenPlumbers USA - find plumbers trained in water conservation.
  • Yelp - type in "plumber" and find reviews of local ones.
  • DoItYourself - info on plumbing all by your lonesome.


To fix the leaks in one of NYC's main water-supply tunnels, the city hired six deep-sea divers to live for over a month in a sealed, pressurized tank within the tunnel and investigate the leaks.
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This tip submitted by Bill Lehtonen.

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