home improvement – Make Every Drop Matter http://makeeverydropmatter.com.au Green Blog Tue, 25 Jul 2017 03:33:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.13 http://makeeverydropmatter.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/cropped-medm1-1-32x32.png home improvement – Make Every Drop Matter http://makeeverydropmatter.com.au 32 32 How to Design Residential Plumbing System to Save Water http://makeeverydropmatter.com.au/plumbing-system-save-water/ http://makeeverydropmatter.com.au/plumbing-system-save-water/#respond Fri, 27 Jan 2017 05:06:19 +0000 http://makeeverydropmatter.com.au/?p=111 These days, we are familiar with the idea that designing a home in a certain way can help reduce the overall utility bills in the long-term as well as saving the planet. Moreover, now that certain areas of America have water shortages, some may feel they have no other choice but to design their home...

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These days, we are familiar with the idea that designing a home in a certain way can help reduce the overall utility bills in the long-term as well as saving the planet. Moreover, now that certain areas of America have water shortages, some may feel they have no other choice but to design their home from the bottom up with environmentally friendly features in order to keep using water in the way they are accustomed. When you are building a new home, it is better to put certain features in the forefront of your design plan instead of trying to incorporate them later. A good example is designing a residential plumbing system that will save you water and money. To get a better idea of how building new house with water saving features is much easier than expected, keep reading.


Reasons homeowners need to save water

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Many homeowners simply need to know what their options are, and then the home designer can put these pieces of the puzzle in the right places at the right times. As far as general reasons for designing a water conscious plumbing plan for a new home, most people will tell you that they want to save water to save the planet. Regardless, it makes sense to do this with any new home because there has always been the added benefit of saving money on utilities in the long-term.

On top of that, in some areas of the country, water shortages can certainly push the price to unexpected levels during certain times of the year. Of course, lessons from Michigan about public water facilities becoming grossly contaminated with lead may also push homeowners to provide their own water. Thankfully, if you are building your own home, you can put all of the important measures in place to ensure the plumbing in your home saves the most water and provides the healthiest environment.


The basics of designing plumbing to save water

In addition to appliances that are designed to save money, you can reroute many traditional plumbing features to reuse wastewater. For example, most homes lose a great deal of water by flushing the toilets. Instead of getting a low-flow toilet, many homeowners find that using wastewater from sinks and the shower is a better way to keep their water conscious homes functioning optimally. Naturally, to get the benefits reusing wastewater, certain features like Perkins diesel engine parts or water collection basins or reservoirs must be included in the original design to save on installation costs and space usage.


Adding other high-tech designs to your plumbing

For environmentally friendly homeowners, there is often a long list of options for saving water that are so advanced that it takes a specialized engineer to understand how they work. Although you may have to leave the installation to the professionals, the basic idea is that a homeowner can install a type of toilet that allows for less sewage to be produced. This green toilet is often called a composting toilet, and there are a number of benefits to using this method. In the end, if you decide that you would like to have this type of toilet, it is best to included it in the original blueprints for your home.


Incorporating water filtration into your plumbing design

Have you considered digging a well or incorporating rainwater into your homes new plumbing options? Homeowners that are adding improvements to an existing home find they often do not have a place for a large-scale water purifier or filtration system to add rainwater or well water to their drinking water. Instead, these are usually reserved for brown water or wastewater options in the home since they cannot filter the water first. However, with basic planning, you can save and drink all of the water you can collect, and the tap water in your home can be as healthy as bottled water.


Adding water heating and HVAC systems

Many homeowners that are unfamiliar with home design and architecture may not know that other components of the plumbing can be connected to environmentally friendly options. For example, HVAC systems that have boilers can benefit from your plumbing design plans to save wastewater. Naturally, you can also use the same type of strategic planning for addressing your water heater. One other important step that can be added at this level is wiring the water heater and HVAC unit to solar panels.


Designing the roof, landscaping, and pavements for water collection

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Sophisticated plumbing design that uses rainwater collection can also be pushed to new levels when the rest of the home is built toward this goal. For instance, gutters are not the only way to collect rainwater. Instead, the pavement can be built in a way that facilitates extra rainwater collection through a cistern drain in the yard. Saving water can also be increased if landscaping plants are not reliant on being watered regularly.

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