in the home not only hurt the environment, they also hurt your pocketbook. After speaking with plumbers at A1 Sewer & Drain, I found that there are plenty of smart strategies to save water at home. Save on your monthly bill and help the environment by avoiding these water losses.

1. Watering the Lawn During the Day

Watering the lawn during daylight hours means a significant loss to evaporation. Switch over to a night time watering schedule to save significant amounts of water. Getting lower to the ground irrigation systems can also significantly reduce losses due to wind.

2. High Flow Appliances

Replacing your outdated appliances with modern, lower water use ones will significantly decrease your water usage throughout the month. Old appliances not only use more water, they also often develop leaks and weaknesses that can increase you water usage significantly.

3. Overuse of the Washing Machine and Dishwasher

When you wash your clothes, be sure to use the correct setting for the amount of clothes you are washing. If your machine doesn't have options for load size, only do the laundry when you have enough clothes to fill the machine. This more efficient use will result in significant water savings. In the same vein, only run the dishwasher when it is full.

4. Long Showers

It's an old tip and everyone knows it, but did you know just how important it is? Keeping your showers under five minutes a day can save up to 1,000 gallons of water a month. That is a huge savings for a small change.

5. Faucet Leaks

Those dripping faucets aren't just annoying, their losing water like crazy. Leaks are usually relatively easy and inexpensive to fix, and will save gallons of water. If your toilet develops a leak in the seal, you will hear it running more often, this is another important fix, since it will most likely lose even more water than the faucet.

6. Wasted Grey Water

Water doesn't immediately become useless once it has run through the drain. Lightly used "grey water" can be rerouted by a plumber to water your lawn, flowers, or trees. Reusing this water is one of the best ways to increase efficiency in your home.

7. Install a Rain Sensor

If your lawn watering is on a timer, adding a rain sensor could make a significant difference. This little device will keep your lawn watering system from running when it isn't needed. This will prevent over-watering your lawn, which can damage plants, and will save both energy and water.

The more steps you take to limit water inefficiencies the more you will save. The environment will thank you for it.