Conserve Water And Save Money: Check For Leaks
In your own household, the key to maintenance of your water supply is up to you. Water leaks and the resulting damage can cause you major financial losses. Anyone can check for water leaks but to fix them you must be able to do some basic repairs.
First of all you need to find out what is causing the leak. Here are several reasons why water leaks occur:
First let’s talk about the kind of water lines you have.
- Galvanized pipes were used many years ago and they corrode and rust and leak especially at joints. These kinds of water pipes have not been used for years and should be replaced throughout the whole house. Repairs to them are not easy, though they can last for a couple of years.
- Copper water lines have been used now for many years and are very good but can leak at joints if it was not soldered properly when installed.
- Plastic lines are now being used a lot and only leak at the joints unless someone punctures it.
Other reasons that lead to water leaks are insufficient supports along the line.
- Most leaks happen at taps where the tap is no longer completely shutting the water off.
- At toilets where the stopper or other internal part needs to be replaced.
- Or at shut offs.
- One major problem in northern climates is your water lines freezing if they are in low heat areas or in exterior walls.
- Another reason for leaks is the use of tools around your water lines, you could inadvertently damage them.
So how do you know if you have water leaks if you are not seeing water on the floor?
1. Learn How To Read Your Water Meter
Being able to do this could well be the easiest way to detect leaks on your own. Start by reading your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there is a water leak! This could be something as simple as a leaky bathtub faucet, or as horrendous as a leak from a pipe deep within one of your walls, which could be causing untold damage to your home.
2. Leak Detection Tips
In order to detect water leaks, make sure you turned off all of your appliances and faucets that use water. Then read your water meter dial and wait for 20 minutes. If the dials didn’t shift, you have a home with water pipes in solid shape. But if the dials shift, systematically check all of your appliances again. If all are turned off and no drips are visible, you need to look for dampness or wet spots around your sinks and water lines.
3. Food Coloring Technique
Make it a routine to check your toilet. By adding a small amount of food color, to your toilet tank you will be able to know if the toilet is leaking. After 20 minutes or so, if the color appears in the bowl, it is leaking. Try to replace the parts as soon as possible to prevent further problems.
Did you know the average water used in each household is 60 to 200 gallons per person for a day? Are you surprised by how much water you consume every day?
- Remember that every drop of water counts
- Bathrooms account for almost 70% of water used
- Ensure all pipes and faucets are leak-free
By being aware of these causes of water leaks and how to detect them, you will conserve water everyday. Conserve water by finding and fixing water leaks regularly. It will benefit you financially. It will keep your family safe. And it will benefit the people of the future who would be able to make use of this precious resource.
So what is Eco or Ethical Furniture?
Do you know if you own any eco friendly furniture? The majority of consumers in North America don’t know, and many of them are not even familiar with the concept. So what is eco friendly furniture, or furniture bought from an ethical source or ethical retailer and why should you care?
Increasingly we face problems like global warming and feel it is someone else’s problem because we think ‘what can I do’. But you can do something. When it comes to buying furniture you can shop in an Ethical way. Put simply, this is buying things that are made ethically by companies that act ethically. Buying ethically means buying a brand or from a company which doesn’t exploit labour, animals or the environment.
Eco friendly furniture is defined as furniture made with nontoxic, sustainable, renewable materials. An example of this is garden furniture made from wood from responsibly managed forests. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international network to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC brings people together to find solutions to the problems created by bad forestry practices and to reward good forest management. Side Note: FSC is the only timber certification system to consistently audit certified companies and to suspend certificates where companies are found to have breached their agreed FSC responsibilities. This gives us confidence that FSC has integrity rather than being used to rubberstamp questionable forestry practice.
So why buy ethically?
Due to a world population of 6 billion and the demand for wood products, forests have been clear-cut throughout the equatorial regions of the world. From Indonesia to Africa to the Americas, deforestation has robbed the world of nearly half of the original tropical forests. Often this deforestation has been fueled by multinational Lumber companies who come in, cut everything in sight, and moved on. Although we are hearing the term Carbon neutral more today, which means that in terms of timber, for every tree they cut down another is planted in either the same place or a different place. That way they remain neutral.
Everyone needs to go shopping in one way or another. As an ethical consumer, every time you buy something you can make a difference by choosing an ethical furniture product or by buying from an ethical business.
For example, when you buy from a company that doesn’t exploit its workers and provides them with decent working conditions, you are giving the company the funds to continue its ethical behaviour. At the same time, you are no longer buying from a company that exploits its labour with poor pay and often a dangerous working environment. That company then loses business, which may encourage it to change its ways and to look after its workers.
In these ways people are contributing in their own way to the noble cause of going green. The idea of eco friendly furniture seems to be growing at about the same rate as the trend of saving the green earth. If you are planning to opt for eco friendly furniture, here’s some information. Shopping for ethical and eco furniture has never been easier.
You can find relevant companies at:
- Guide Me Green where they list 100s of companies.
- Or companies with valid FSC certificates from the FSC database.
- The Green Providers Directory is the UK’s leading resource for finding green, organic and fair trade products and services.
As our awareness of ethical issues has grown, we have begun to demand more ethical products. Manufactures are increasingly responding to this demand by signing up to ethical initiatives which they are more than happy to tell us about. The more of us who value ethical manufacture the more it will be provided. So in your search for new outdoor furniture, be sure to have a thought for where it came from.