Financial Benefits of Water Efficiency
Maintaining clean and safe water coming into your home or business can be costly. If your system is not the most efficient or is in constant need of repair, it could be nickel-and-diming you to death. There are many options out there for water treatment, both in your home or business of for an entire community. Lets take a look and what can be done to improve water efficiency and provide financial benefits from water treatment.
Basic Cost of Water Treatment
Most water treatment starts at a community facility and makes its way into your home. Here it can go through other water treatment systems that you’ve had installed. Most communities are seeing a rising cost in water use and disposal, so it is important that these water treatment facilities use improved technologies for boosting all parts of their systems. With improved capabilities in everything from chemical use to pushing the clean water through the pipes to its community, water treatment centers are doing all they can to keep costs low and work efficiently.
Reuse of Water and Storm Water
Among communities across the country, people have looked into the cost and use of storm water and reusing the water that is cycled back into the treatment facilities. Most water treatment facilities do recycle and reuse the water that flows back in through sewage, but what about using the water collected from rain showers? Many gardeners use a rain barrel to collect and use rainwater while cutting down on water use as they care for their plants. Could this be a possibility with water treatment plants, and how well would it even work?
There are several public benefits to using collected rainwater. It could reduce or defer utility costs that would come with developing new water sources or upgrading and expanding treatment plants. It could also possibly reduce energy costs related to having to pump imported water into the facility for use. There would also be a greater water supply from storm water in some arid or semi-arid regions.
The private benefit would be that these days, people are proud to conserve and save energy as well as recycle something that they are using. It would also enhance the spirit of the community as they could show other people and businesses that they were helping the community in a new way by conserving energy and using a natural resource.
It may take time for something like this to happen on a grander scale than your home rain barrel, but it could also create jobs later as something like this would need to be installed and maintained. Only time will tell if rainwater collection can happen on this large of a scale, but if it can, it create financial benefits for many communities.
Saving Water Can Save You Money
It takes energy to deliver and treat the water that comes into your home everyday. According to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the average family will spend around $1,100 a year in just water costs. But if these same families would refit their home with more efficient fixtures and appliances, it would save them an estimated $350 a year. Just heating your water for simple things like cooking, bathing, and cleaning requires a lot of energy, and using your electricity and can raise your bill. Simply by watching what you use water for and reducing the energy cost of the water coming in, you accrue big financial benefits.
Environmental and Community Impact
With water shortages in some communities and a need for cleaner water in others, there are ways every homeowner and business can positively impact their area when it comes to water. Again, just conserving water use, using a rain barrel to collect rain water for outdoor water use, and making sure your home or business has the most efficient fixtures and appliances will help make sure there is more water available in the future and that the situation is the best it can be for the community right now. This will also keep community costs lower from the energy cost of water coming from water treatment facilities.
If every home and business owner did their part for the community with water conservation and efficiency, it could lower energy cost for the community water treatment facility as well as for them personally. Not only would it protect the future of water and energy conservation, but it would also have a great impact on the current cost of water treatment.
If you want more information on water treatment systems, check out Advanced Water Solutions’ other blogs, such as this one that goes over the basics of water treatment.