Saturday, April 10, 2010

How do you know if your toilet bowl water closet is leaking?

There is a strong need for people to be aware about how to save water. Water conservation in the Philippines has come to become ever more important not only due to increased price of water, but also with the exceptionally low water level found the dams.

During the energy water conservation seminar dubbed "The Greener Good" hosted by JCI with notable guests from Greenpeace, Manhattan Green Solutions, and Philcarbon, Greenpeace has emphasized just how bad is the current situation with the water reserve. The water level is actually lower than the measuring stick. It was a lot lower than the "critical level" sign on the measuring point. Water conservation is thus paramount in this situation.

One of the areas oftentimes found to be a major problem are toilet bowl leaks. Toilet water closets that use flappers have a terrible tendency to leak alarming amount of water without us realizing. Toilet water closets can leak up to 2 liters per minute. Some can go as high as 5 liters per minute.

How do we know if our toilet is leaking? The simplest and most cost effective idea is to put food coloring on the water (a few drops of red is good) in the water closet and not flush the toilet for 10 minutes. Come back after 10 minutes and check if the toilet bowl. If the color in the toilet bowl has changed, then there's a leak.

If a leak is found, check the flap. If it does not close well, try to clean the area around the flap, replace the flap, or increase string length for the toilet flush.

If possible, replace flapper to a siphon system.

What are sometimes not noticed can be a deadly source of leaks. Making minor changes can quantify to large savings. This is a good and positive start in going green

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