For those that think that they have a high utility bill, a lot of this can be avoided by doing some routine checks, by the time you are done reading this, you will have a much better idea on how you can save money on your water bill. First off you want to make sure that you do not have any leaks, particularly hot water leaks. The most common place that hot water leaks occur are kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, or bathtub faucets.
Even a small drip of water, especially if it is coming from the hot water side, can add up after a month, and could be something like $30 dollars down the drain, literally. The easiest way to check to see if you have any hot water leaking by, is to see if you have a water meter that is attached to your how water heater, make notice of where the needle is at, and do not use any water for the next 2 hours.
Return to the meter 2 hours later and see if the needle has moved at all, if the needle has not moved, then you are pretty safe in terms of having a water leak in your home, if the needle has moved though, you may want to take a deeper look into seeing where the water has came from.
You can do the same thing to the main water meter that is calculating the water usage for your home. I know that you have also heard this tip, but I am going to reiterate just in case you have not. If you use a dishwasher, make sure it is full before you do the dishes. Same goes with the washing machine, and if possible, wash and rinse your clothes in cold water, I know that it is hard to get whites clean with just cold water, so you may need to make an exception if you are washing whites, something like wash with hot water and rinse with cold water.
Speaking of dishes, you can also save money on your water bill by doing dishes by hand, instead of using the dishwasher. This will save money on both your water bill, and electricity bill, especially if you have your dishwasher set to ‘heated dry’, when they can dry just as good in a drip tray, and that costs nothing at all.
Energy efficient water heaters will also do wonders on saving money on your water bill, and electric bill. Make sure that all of the water heater pipes are insulated, this way they will not lose as much heat, and you might save yourself a couple of minutes of running cold water, as the water will be heated up faster when you call for it, thus saving you a couple gallons of water a month.
Also another big water waster are the flapper valves that are inside of the tanks of toilets. These things tend to get stuck sometimes from old age and wear, or just a loose chain. If you toilet is leaking by water, then you are wasting several gallons a month, if not every day, if your toilet is silent without the noise of running water, then you are probably in the clear.