We hope everyone has been enjoying the fall weather as the holiday season quickly approaches. We’re doing our part to ‘Be Green’ and conserve wherever possible. And you can do your part during the winter months. South Farmingdale Water District offers several suggestions to help promote water conservation and specific green initiatives within our homes and community.
Winterizing Tips During the Fall and Winter Season:
If water pipes are located in an unheated area of your house, cover the pipes with insulation to prevent freezing.
Disconnect all outdoor hoses, turn off the water leading outdoors and open each outdoor faucet.
Know where your shut-off valve is located in case of emergency.
Keep any fire hydrant on your property clear of snow.
Water Faucet Conservation Tips
A faucet that drips once every second can waste 8 gallons of water in one day or more than 3,000 gallons in one year. Non-conserving showerheads use 5 to 8 gallons per minute, consuming up to 80 gallons of water for a 10-minute shower. By using low flow showerheads, customers can save more than 24 gallons of water per shower, while improving faucet performance.
Standard kitchen faucets use 4 to 7 gallons of water per minute, consuming up to 120 gallons of water to wash a sink full of dishes. Installing a high-efficiency faucet aerator results in a flow rate of 1 to 2.75 gallons per minute and increases the area of coverage, improving faucet performance. This reduces water usage by about 50 percent.
Save Money By Using SFWD’s FREE Water Bottles!
If you think about it, designer water comes from the same aquifers as regular tap water. So here’s a great way for you to save money, protect the environment from plastic bottles and skip out on buying bottled water. For the last year, the SFWD has been providing residents with free water bottles to fill up with great tasting tap water.
Savings to the consumer can be immense. The average consumer pays about $1.46 for a 20-ounce bottle of water from a convenience store. By comparison, $1.25 pays for about 1,000 gallons of water from the SFWD tap. Using those figures, 1,000 gallons of bottled water would cost $9,344.
For more information or to leave comments, suggestions or feedback, please contact me directly at 249-3330 or visit www.sfwater.com.
