Improving The Plumbing in Your Home

It's always a good idea to improve things around the house, and in these times of being environmentally conscious we’ve learned how to cut water usage and save on our electrical bills. There are things you can do to your plumbing as well to make it more environmentally friendly. Although not all the suggestions in this section can be thought of as green, they're all good commonsense ideas.

A good water heater won't do you much good if all the heat gets leaked out through the pipes.  Therefore you should insulate your water pipes especially the ones in the exterior walls that are more exposed to cold temperatures.  This is where you lose significant amounts of energy.  As well as reducing the amount of energy you lose as the water flows through your pipes, this technique will also reduce what is termed as standby losses. This is energy lost through the walls or up the flu of the hot water tank.

Although any time is a good time to insulate the pipes, the best time is when you are already doing some renovation work.  This is due to the fact that pipes already fixed to walls or in the ceiling are harder to wrap with insulation. It's very important to insulate all the pipes in unconditioned areas like basements and attics.  Foam or fiberglass pipe sheaths usually come with a slit in the side that runs lengthwise; this slit can be taped shut to increase the insulating properties. Taping the ends also maintains a tight fit on the pipes.

Because pipes close to the exterior walls will cool more quickly than pipes at the interior of the home, it's a good suggestion to move all the pipes as close as possible to the inside whenever you're changing the plumbing.  To save even more money, you can invest in an on demand hot water pump that shuts off when the water reaches a certain temperature and pumps the water to the faucets and fixtures more quickly. It is worthy to note that this differs from a recirculating or continuous system that is a more wasteful option since it keeps hot water constantly circulating in the pipes.

Here's another interesting fact.  One tenth of the United State’s water consumption is lost through leaks in the household. Toilets are the biggest offenders and they waste a tremendous amount of water. A leaky faucet can waste a lot as well. You should consider installing a leak monitoring system that can quite often be integrated with an automatic meter reading system. Look online under ‘residential leak water protection’ to find the companies that offer these services. As well, you could consider installing hot water pipes in the attic that run to a hot water closet for future solar installations. This will allow for a solar system to be installed at a later date if you chose to go that way.