When your bathroom remodel plans call for new fixtures keep in mind these tips for ways you can conserve water and put a little less stress on our environment. With these tips part of you bathroom plans you will be able to start saving money on your water bills and know you are doing the right thing for our planet.

Bathroom Water Use -
You use more water in the bathroom than in all of the other rooms combined! This is where you shower, shave, wash hands, brush teeth and flush the toilet. There are three areas in the bathroom where you can save water; click on each one to learn more:

Toilet -
The toilet is the highest water-consuming device in the home, making up about 27% of indoor water use. Depending on the type of toilet you have, modifying the amount of water it flushes or replacing it with an ultra-low flush toilet could save you lots of water.

Upgrade Your Existing Toilet -
If your home is older than 1992, chances are your toilets use between 3.5 and 5 gallons of water per flush. Some older toilet models even use as much as 7 gallons per flush! You can easily reduce the amount of water used per flush by displacing some of the water in the toilet's tank. Simply place a water-resistant object, such as a plastic bottle, inside the tank. Each gallon you can displace represents thousands of gallons you will save each year. Modifying your toilet in such a manner should not adversely impact its operation, however, if it does, consider replacing it with a newer model.

Install an Ultra-Low Flush Toilet -
Since 1992, all residential-type toilets manufactured in the U.S. use no more than 1.6 gallons per flush. If you have an old-style toilet, replacing it with a newer model will save you lots of water and money. While these low-flow toilets have, in the past, had a bad rap, newer toilet models have been reengineered to perform better.

Showers and Baths -
Showers and baths consume about 18% of the water used indoors. You can save water in the shower by installing low-flow showerheads, keeping each shower short and sweet, and running the water only when it is needed to lather up and rinse off.

Install Low-Flow Showerheads -
If your home was built before 1992, chances are your showerheads put out about 5 gallons of water per minute (gpm). Multiply this by the number of minutes you're in the shower, and the water adds up fast! Most showerheads in homes built after 1992 deliver no more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute. Some even emit less than this and still provide a great shower! Install a low-flow showerhead today and begin saving lots of water.

Keep Showers Short & Sweet -
Taking unnecessarily long showers wastes water. Reducing the length of your shower by just one minute could save you up to 1,825 gallons of water each year.

Run Water Only When Needed -
By far the best way to save water in the shower is to only run the water when needed. This practice can reduce the water used to less than 10 gallons each shower and will save you money each year.

Sink -
The faucets in your bathroom sinks generally use about 2.5 gallons of water per minute (gpm). By turning off the water when you brush your teeth, you can save approximately 3 gallons of water! Filling the basin to rinse your razor when you shave can save about 4 gallons. Installing a faucet aerator is a simple and inexpensive way to reduce water use in the bathroom. Faucet aerators reduce output from 2.5 gpm to 1.5 gpm! This is a savings of about 40%!