WaterSense Products Save 1.25 Billion Kilowatt Hours of Electricity in 2008

The EPA's WaterSense program provides a perfect example of how saving water saves energy (and money!). In 2008, consumers who installed WaterSense labeled toilets, faucets, and faucet accessories helped save more than 9.3 billion gallons of water, 1.25 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity and $55 billion on water and sewer utility bills. In addition, these savings avoided the emissions of nearly 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to taking 180,000 cars off the road for a year!

Here's what the EPA wrote about the remarkable savings from their WaterSense Program:

In 2008, consumers who installed WaterSense labeled toilets, faucets, and faucet accessories helped save more than 9.3 billion gallons of water and realized $55 billion in savings on water and sewer utility bills.

These savings resulted from the sale of 1.38 million WaterSense labeled toilets and 4.4 million WaterSense labeled bathroom faucets and aerators. To date, buyers can choose from more than 300 different toilet models and more than 1,000 different types of water-saving faucets and accessories such as aerators that have earned the WaterSense label since 2007.

And water is only part of the equation. WaterSense labeled faucets saved U.S. households nearly 1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity from not heating the extra water, and utilities saved an additional 25 million kWh of electricity that otherwise would have been needed to pump and treat that water. This avoided the production of nearly 1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to removing 180,000 automobiles from the road for one year. Something to contemplate the next time you wash your hands—with a WaterSense labeled faucet, we hope.

And that's just the beginning. In addition to faucets and toilets, the EPA's WaterSense program is planning on rolling out specifications for showerheads, irrigation control technologies, pre-rinse spray valves and new homes. With so many savings realized through just toilets and faucets, it will be exciting to see how much water, energy and money is saved when the program expands!

If you want to learn more about the potential to save energy and reduce carbon emissions by saving water, check out River Network's report The Carbon Footprint of Water