Refitting home plumbing can be an expensive pain in the neck, especially when the government says to do it for new regulations. All of a sudden, what you thought were perfectly good pipes, showerheads and toilets aren’t up to snuff. Sometimes old fixtures are pardoned, but what about when you need to buy new faucets or showerheads? Luckily the Enivronmental Protection Agency has been handing out rebates to help out.
The EPA’s Water Sense program has been going strong for four years now, and has fairly recently rolled out rebates to not only encourage water saving efforts, but to make it easier on consumers and contractors as well.
The rebate amounts are set by water district, which are sometimes different from county lines. For the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, you can receive a $50 rebate for high efficiency toilet, while in Dallas; the local utility gives out $90 utility bill credits per toilet replaced that have low gallon per minute ratings.
The dual bonus of these rebates is they’re saving you money in order to save money. Lessening your water usage in your faucets, sink aerators, toilets, showerheads and even your sprinklers will cause a pretty significant reduction in your water utility bill, especially in an older home. You can think of it as getting paid to save money.
The last bit of news I want to convey with this blog post is to pay careful attention to the rules for every district. Figure out which areas you do your work in, and see what their posted regulations are in terms of applying for the reward. They aren’t draconian or Kafkaesque in their implementation, but there are certain requirements that need to be followed.