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<br />. <br /> <br />A Do-It Yourself Water Audit <br />(How to Get the Most for Your Water) <br /> <br />Amaze your frierid.s! Impress your neighbors! Save lots of money, and conserve water! <br />This audit is designed especially for Westminster residents. This means you! Bills are <br />high, precious water is being wasted, and you want it to stop. How? Take 15 minutes of <br />your time to do this audit, and set cut on a water-saving adventure all within the confines <br />of your own home and yard. It's easy. It's interesting, and chances are this audit will help <br />you save a lot of money! The activities listed are actions you can take now as you go <br />through the audit. The additional actions suggest simple lifestyle changes you can make <br />to conserVe water. So what are you waiting for? Let's go! <br /> <br />Destination # I: Your water meter. <br /> <br />Before beginning this audit, make sure no one in the house is using any water. Walk <br />outside and find your water meter. Lift the meter lid carefully since there may be wires <br />attached. If nobody is using water, the numbers should not be increasing. If they are, this <br />is a sign that you have a leak somewhere in your house and it's time to play detective! <br />Use your water meter as a measure of how much water your family uses in a week. After <br />completing this audit and correcting any leaks, see how much you can reduce your water <br />usage in a week. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Destination #2: Your bathroom. <br /> <br />Take a good look at your bathroom. Almost everything you do here revolves around <br />water, doesn't it? Two-thirds of the water used inside the home is used in the bathroom. <br />So think about how much water there is to be saved! Let's look at the shower first! <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Activities: <br />. Check the flow rate of your showerhead. To do this, turn the shower all the way on <br />and see how long it takes to fill a one-gallon plastic milk jug. You may have to cut a <br />piece of the neck off the jug so it will fit over the showerhead. If the jug takes more <br />than 20 seconds to fill, congratulate yourself. You have a water-saving showerhead, <br />using fewer than 2.5 gallons per minute. Ifit takes less than 20 seconds, you've just <br />discovered a major way to start conserving water. For $10-$20, you can cut <br />showerhead water use by 50"10 or more. An average family of four should recover the <br />money spent on a water efficient showerhead in about 4 months while saving up to <br />14,000 gallons of water per year. <br />. Replace sink faucets with low flow aerators that deliver 1 1/2-2 gallons per minute and <br />save about 3-5% of total indoor water use. Sink aerators cost only a few dollars a <br />piece, and the reduced water use will pay for the cost of the aerators at least once a <br />year. <br />. Check toilets for leaks. Place a few drops of food coloring in your water tank. DO <br />NOT FLUSH! Wait 20 minutes and see if any color shows up in the bowl. If yes, <br />than you have a leak and it needs to be fixed. <br /> <br />1 <br />