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Being a plumber is sometimes easy and other times it is hard dirty work. In some cases, one minute you are on what you think is a routine job and the next minute everything about the call has changed. Over the years, plumbing has changed and those who work as a plumber are seeing customers, especially those in the Mansfield, TXarea, who want their plumbing to be greener and eco-friendlier. Below are a few ideas to get started.

What Is Being Green?

Being green means that an individual has decided to live a lifestyle of making decisions that reduce their impact on the environment. They do this by trying to protect the environment and live in a sustainable way that is both ecologically and environmentally responsible and friendly.

Such decisions revolve around organic food, conservation, construction materials, energy efficiency, recycling, and waste. Being a plumber in the Mansfield, TX area is somewhat different than being a plumber in Miami, FL, or Barrow, AK due to the needs of the area, but each plumbing service can take steps to be greener and to help their customers be greener as well.

How Does Being Green Help Homes and Businesses?

Being green at home and a place of business helps to reduce maintenance costs as well as utility costs. Not only will there be less air and water pollution in green homes and businesses, but they will be able to use less water and going green can help improve the overall efficiency of a business as reducing waste trims the business’s operating costs and increase the bottom line.

For example, pipes that are better insulated means that any water will warm up quicker and stay quicker longer. Not only does this help reduce water waste, but it also cuts down on utility costs for homes and businesses. A plumber can replace old pipes with pipes that are better insulated to help reduce costs in the long run.

How Can A Plumber Help Customers Be Greener?

When it comes to being greener, plumbers usually focus on the customer, but there are ways that a plumbing service can become greener as well. Below are some suggestions that both a plumber and customers can do to become greener.

Solar Water Heaters

Mansfield, TX has an average of 229 sunny days per year with an average of 2910 hours of sunlight out of a possible 4383. This means there is plenty of sunlight to power solar water heaters to reduce water and energy waste. Solar water heaters use solar power to heat water for homes and businesses. A plumber will find it easy to install solar water heaters as they take up less space. Customers will love them because they are using free energy, thereby saving money on fuel bills, and they are cheaper to install than solar panels, but if customers or a plumber wishes to generate electricity, they will still need solar PV panels.

Tankless Water Heaters

Tankless water heaters help homes and businesses waste less energy as they offer a nonstop supply of hot water. They also eliminate the cost of keeping 50 gallons of water in a storage tank. They are energy efficient and have a significantly longer lifespan than non-tankless water heaters and require a lot less storage space than water heaters with a storage tank.

Recycling Plumbing Materials

The metal or plastic materials that a plumber uses, such as pipes, plumbing fixtures, and other supplies are made from either plastic or metal. Not only does recycling these materials reduce landfill waste, but it also reduces energy costs and provides the raw materials to remake them into something new. For example, plastic water and soda bottles can be repurposed and made into a bench.

Metal pipes can be turned into a faucet, other piping, or metal fittings. Plastic plumbing materials can be repurposed into plastic tubing, plastic fittings, or other plastic plumbing materials. Even though not everything that a plumber uses can be recycled, but the bulk of it can be and should be recycled and repurposed.

Recovering Greywater

Greywater is water that is suitable for reuse and does not contain any fecal matter or any other toilet waste from toilets or diapers. Examples of greywater are water that has been used for bathing, doing laundry, or washing dishes. While it may contain hair, food particles, dirt, or grease and other impurities, it can be reused by the home or business.

HVAC condensation recovery is a part of greywater recovery and it helps to reduce water use and improves water conservation. Greywater can be used for laundry, toilet flushing, plant irrigation, both for plants that produce food and plants that don’t produce food, watering the lawn, and other uses. While uses for greywater are limited, laundry, flushing toilets, and watering lawns are among the highest ways that both customers and businesses use water.

Presenting the Paperless Plumber

Do you really know how much paper you use as a plumber in your business daily? Or how much you have stored away in a filing cabinet? Every single invoice, document, or letter takes at least one sheet of paper, not even counting the multiple copies of each sheet that are needed. Not only does this create a lot of trash and waste each year, but it is time-consuming to go through to find old documents you don’t need any more and throwing them away or trying to find the information you need.

Going paperless has many advantages. For one, you will save on ink. Ink is incredibly expensive and, while remanufactured ink is cheaper, a plumber will be saving even more money by going paperless with digital documentation. Customers can sign digital invoices on tablets or other portable devices and copies of those invoices can be sent by email, or kept online for them to access. You can also keep your own records on the computer, making sure to back them up online or with an SD card or USB drive. If needed, a portable printer can be used if something needs to be printed out.

Hot Water on Demand

We have all been there. We turn on the faucet for some hot water but are blasted with ice-cold water, even in the summer. We then stand there in front of the sink for about a minute or two, occasionally dipping our hands in the water to gauge whether or not it is at our wanted temperature. That wastes a lot of water. If hot water is used 20 times per day, then an estimated 60 gallons of water is wasted waiting for the water of the shower or faucet to get hot enough for our needs.

To solve this, a plumber can install an on-demand hot water circulation pump that sends hot water to faucets and showers in seconds. This can be used in the plumber’s business or a customer’s home. Not only does this drastically reduce water usage by eliminating the wait for the water to warm up, thereby saving money, but it saves time and money as well.

Healthier Water with Water Filtration

Both homes and businesses alike can benefit from a water filtration system. It’s no secret that there are harmful bacteria and chemicals that can get in municipal water supply, as well as pathogenic protozoa. However, with a reverse osmosis filter, or some other water filtration system, customers can be secure in the knowledge their water is healthy and safe to use. Reverse osmosis is when high pressure is used to push water through a filter that has very small pores. This is done to remove microorganisms, minerals, and other contaminants that can get into the water.

Water filtration ties in with being greener in that it makes the water more sustainable. When water is treated, either at a business, home, or water treatment plant, chemicals are used. These chemicals aren’t the best for the environment. When water is treated and filtered in a way that does not use chemicals, it is better for the environment.

Pipe Insulation

Not only does heat rise, but heat is an escape artist that finds every single possible way of leaving your home and business, draining it of any warmth that it can. This is done through windows, poorly sealed doors, floors, holes, vents, and even pipes. If pipes are insulated, the insulation traps the heat within the pipes as it travels to the faucet from the water heater so it doesn’t escape. When possible, don’t run home or business plumbing through outside walls as a way to prevent more heat from escaping, despite insulating the pipes.

Low-Flow Toilets

Toilets in the home and in the business are used and flushed multiple times per day. Toilets use nearly a third of typical indoor water use and each flush uses anywhere from four to six gallons of water with each use. With a low-flow toilet, the amount of water per flush is down to 1.5 gallons. With the average person using the toilet upwards of 10 times per day, the amount of water is cut down from 60 gallons to 15 gallons per day.

Flow Reducers for Faucets

Faucet flow reducers can be secured to the end of the faucets where the faucet aerator is located. Not only are faucet reducers easy to install, but they have been able to reduce the flow of water coming out of a faucet by 30 to 40 percent. Faucet flow reducers are great as they help people to better conserve water and after a while, people will forget that the reducer is there and that they even have one until they are reminded about it.

Low-Flow Showerheads

Another place in the home where water is wasted is in the shower. Not only do people have to wait for the water to warm up, but there is so much water that is wasted. There are shower heads out that are low flow, but the way they function it doesn’t seem like they are. The water from low flow showerheads should be comfortable with a steady stream of water.

There are even showers that run until the water becomes hot and then reduces the water to a trickle until the person can hop in and pull a cord to resume the stream of water. Combined with the on-demand hot water circulation pump from above, water conservation in the home is a snap.

Reducing Water Consumption with Energy-efficient Appliances

An energy-efficient dishwasher can be 30 percent more water-efficient and nearly 15 percent more energy efficient than standard dishwashers out there. With energy-efficient washers, they reduce water consumption by 35 percent and energy consumption by 20 percent. Top-loading washers are 33 percent more energy-efficient and reduce water use by 19 percent.

With the amount of energy and water energy-efficient appliances save, not to mention the amount of money customers will save, it is surprising that appliances that are not energy efficient haven’t been phased out completely or no longer manufactured. For those who are waiting to switch over to an energy-efficient washer, not only is washing laundry in cold water instead of hot water gentler on clothes, but it also saves on energy consumption as nearly 90 percent of the energy used in a washer is used to heat the water that the washer uses.

The services Benjamin Franklin Plumbing in the Mansfield, TX area offers include conventional and tankless water heaters, water filters, plumbing repair, sump pumps, pipe repairs, garbage disposal and more. In this day and age, there is absolutely no reason to continue to waste money, energy, and water when the quality of the materials you use can be replaced with something that will use less energy, less water, and cost you less money to use.

If you need one of our punctual plumbers to assist your home or business in its everyday plumbing needs, or simply want our help to improve the water and energy efficiency of your plumbing, then give us a call today.