Blog by Mehrnaz Chitsaz

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Help Saving Water

Power Smart bathrooms

Homeowners can save significant money by conserving water in their bathrooms with these easy, energy-saving tips:

  • Take shorter showers. By cutting shower time from ten minutes to five, based on one shower a day, BC Hydro predicts an average saving of 34,675 litres of water annually. The hot water from showers can account for as much as 25 per cent of a household’s energy costs.
  • Adjust the showerhead. A five-minute shower can use up to 80 litres of hot water with a conventional showerhead. A low-flow showerhead can reduce this by half or even more without sacrificing water pressure.
  • Invest in a high-efficiency toilet. Metro Vancouver says high-efficiency toilets can reduce household water use by 60 per cent a year.
  • Turn off the water when brushing teeth or shaving. If every person in BC reduced the time they left the water running while brushing their teeth, shaving or washing their face by three minutes per day, they would save enough water to fill 23,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. 

To learn more about ways to conserve energy in everyday life, as well as BC Hydro’s Power Smart residential programs such as mail-in rebates, the refrigerator buy-back program, ENERGY STAR® windows, PST exemptions and Power Smart New Homes, visit www.bchydro.com/powersmart .