EPA Launches New WaterSense Website, Highlights Energy Savings

The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program has rolled out a sleek new website packed with accessible information on WaterSense products, partners, rebates and the multidimensional benefits of water efficiency, including energy savings.

The newly updated WaterSense website is a welcome change as it appears more inviting, engaging and intuitive to search for information on the WaterSense program, and learn about the water, energy and money savings you can achieve through WaterSense labeled products.

Plus, the website emphasizes the energy savings people can acheive through WaterSense products. In describing the benefits of water efficiency, energy savings are highlighted after saving money:

Save Water, Save Money

The average household spends as much as $500 per year on its water and sewer bill. By making just a few simple changes to use water more efficiently, you could save about $170 per year. If all U.S. households installed water-efficient appliances, the country would save more than 3 trillion gallons of water and more than $18 billion dollars per year! Also, when we use water more efficiently, we reduce the need for costly water supply infrastructure investments and new wastewater treatment facilities.

Save Water, Save Energy

It takes a considerable amount of energy to deliver and treat the water you use everyday. American public water supply and treatment facilities consume about 56 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year—enough electricity to power more than 5 million homes for an entire year. For example, letting your faucet run for five minutes uses about as much energy as letting a 60-watt light bulb run for 14 hours.

By reducing household water use you can not only help reduce the energy required to supply and treat public water supplies but also can help address climate change. In fact:

• If one out of every 100 American homes retrofitted with water-efficient fixtures, we could save about 100 million kWh of electricity per year—avoiding 80,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That is equivalent to removing nearly 15,000 automobiles from the road for one year!

• If 1 percent of American homes replaced their older, inefficient toilets with WaterSense labeled models, the country would save more than 38 million kWh of electricity—enough to supply more than 43,000 households electricity for one month.

The website also has an entire page under the heading Saving Water Saves Energy: Make the Drops-to-Watts Connection, which has more helpful information on how water efficiency saves energy:

It's Time for a New Way to Think About Water and Energy Efficiency

With climate change concerns, pervasive droughts, and high energy prices across the country, nearly everyone is looking for ways to conserve resources and cut costs. The good news is that by using a little “water sense” we can all use water and energy more efficiently, save money, and preserve our nation’s energy supplies and water for future generations.

It’s time for a new way of thinking about using water and energy more efficiently. The WaterSense program can help you save both.

Drops & Watts: You Can’t Have One Without the Other

Many Americans know about the importance of saving energy, and many know about the importance of saving water. But few know about the direct connection between saving both. We turn on the bathroom lights and the shower without realizing how closely related water and electricity are to each other.

The truth is vast amounts of energy are used to pump, treat, deliver, and heat our nation’s water.

Approximately 4 percent of the nation’s electricity consumption is used moving or treating water and wastewater. Considerable amounts of energy also go to heat water for bathing, shaving, cooking, and cleaning our homes, dishes, and clothes. In homes with electric water heaters, one-quarter of the households’ electricity is used to heat water.

Given how closely related saving water is to saving energy, one of the best ways to save energy across the country and in our own homes is to use water more efficiently.

How Can We Start Saving?

One of the simplest ways to save both water and energy is to install water-efficient plumbing fixtures. The WaterSense label makes it easy to identify toilets, faucets, and accessories that not only save water, but reduce your energy bills. Installing WaterSense labeled faucet aerators in your bathrooms, for example, costs just a few dollars but could save you enough electricity to dry your hair every day for a year!

There are hundreds of WaterSense labeled toilets and bathroom sink faucets and faucet accessories to choose from. What’s more, you can be sure the products will not only save resources, but they will perform to your expectations. WaterSense labeled products must achieve independent, third-party testing and certification to prove they meet EPA’s rigorous criteria for both efficiency and performance before they can earn the label.

Look for WaterSense labeled products and start saving both water and energy!

I’d highly recommend checking out the new WaterSense website and letting people know about it. The website features interactive educational materials, a water-efficiency rebate finder, and tips on how to on how to start using water more efficiently around the home. You can even download EPA widgets - such as a “WaterSense Tip of the Day” widget which comes in three different shapes and sizes - to feature on your website. The WaterSense Program URL is: http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/.