Coming off the heels of Governor Brown’s 2015 declared state of emergency, Santa Ana residents will be required to reduce their water usage this year by 12%. One sure way to get a head start is by participating in the SoCal Water$mart program.
Water & Wallet Friendly Home Improvements
The term ‘home improvements’ almost always precedes a deep and reluctant sigh, but these relatively easy installs will save money hand over faucet!
Indoor
- High Efficiency Toilets (HETs) use 20 percent less water than your standard one. Since roughly 30 percent of your home water usage is devoted to your daily task, you could be saving over 8,000 gallons of water a year, and will save approximately $800 (or more) on your water bill. So get on a HET and flush away all your worries.
- Replacing your everyday washer with a High-Efficiency Clothes Washer will conserve 55 percent more water, saving potentially 14 gallons of water a day. This not only translates to more than $400 in your appliance savings but will also reduce your energy bill as less water makes for less energy to heat it.
Outdoor
- Conserving water can also be done with outdoor home improvements such as weather-based irrigation controllers (WBICs), which will adjust their water schedule to accommodate changing weather patterns and plant types. This alone will save you 13,000 gallons a year and over $700 on your water bill, while also preventing you from overwatering your garden.
- Less sophisticated but equally effective devices such as rotating sprinkler nozzles) and rain barrels will also conserve water at the spigot and prevent runoff from re-entering storm drains and waterways.
Be proactive during the drought! With everyone’s participation we can reach our 12 percent conservation goal and save a few dimes along the way. As the adage says, watch the ounces and the gallons take care of themselves—well, almost!