It's National
Fix a
Leak Week!
Minor household leaks account for more than 1
trillion gallons of wasted water every year in the U.S. -
that's enough water to fill Lake Cachuma more than 15 times!
Find and fix leaks today. Click below to learn how to read your water
meter, check for irrigation leaks, and test your toilets for silent
leaks, which can waste up to 200 gallons of water every day!
To schedule a free Water Checkup, call the Water Conservation
Hotline: (805) 564-5460
Water Meters:
Checking for leaks inside your home:
- Check your toilets - 20% of all toilets leak,
often silently or at night. Follow these
directions to check your toilet for leaks.
- Look for drips - faucets, fixtures, hoses and plumbing in
kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and appliances.
- Water softeners can malfunction - Check the salt reservoir.
Increased salt use correlates to increased water usage, and may indicate
a change in the regeneration schedule or malfunction.
- Water heaters – these leaks are usually quite obvious and you
will discover substantial amounts of water on the floor around your
heater. Normally, the first sign of a heater problem is water dripping
from the bottom of the jacket. This indicates that the tank has corroded
through.
- On-demand water heaters - leaks in an on-demand hot water
system are likely to occur at the connections to the pump, which is
typically placed under the sink located furthest from the hot water
heater. Check for leaks around the pump as you would around any standard
plumbing connections. Look for puddles of water under the sink and
inspect the pipe connections to ensure that they are dry.
- Video: How to
Find and Repair Toilet Leaks
Checking your irrigation system for leaks:
- Observe irrigation in use – look for broken
sprinkler heads, missing emitters, cut drip lines, and saturated areas.
Check your irrigation schedule (length of time, number of days and
stations).
-
Video: How to Check your Sprinklers for Leaks
-
Video: How to Check your Drip System for Leaks
- Change your irrigation controller’s back-up battery – the
battery in your irrigation controller ensures that your irrigation
controller will keep your watering schedule during a power outage. If the
battery is dead and the power goes out, irrigation controllers return to
the default mode (usually 15 minutes, every station, every day at night),
doubling your water bill.
- Irrigation valve box can leak - listen for the sound of
running water at the pressure regulator where the water line comes into
the house.
- Look for drips at all outside plumbing and irrigation.
- Pools
- place a bucket on the top step of the pool and fill it
with water to the pool's water level. After a day, if the water level in
the pool is lower than the bucket, there probably is a leak in the pool
structure or plumbing system.
http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/resources/conservation/leakchk/default.asp?utm_source=PublicWorks&utm_medium=Leaks&utm_campaign=QuickLinks
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
http://www.sbpermaculture.org
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