With household costs rising on pretty much every front, there’s something you can do, something that’s incredibly easy, that will allow you to save a few bucks while helping the environment in the process.
What’s this simple household hack, you ask? Turn off the tap.
Your bi-monthly water bill isn’t in the same stratosphere as a mortgage payment or the grocery budget, but unlike some others, this is one household cost you can control, and every little bit helps, both from a financial and environmental perspective.
Most know that Okotoks uses a tiered water billing system that charges on a sliding scale, which means you pay more per cubic metre the greater your rate of consumption, however it’s a safe bet that most don’t realize the majority of households fail to stay within the first of those three tiers, meaning those homes could well be paying more for water than is necessary.
A typical home in Okotoks uses approximately 32 cubic metres per billing cycle, well above the 23 cubic metres allotted in Tier 1, which is structured to reflect reasonable indoor usage for an average-sized family as well as minimal outdoor usage. It gets even worse in the summer when average household water use jumps to 48 cubic metres due to the amount of outdoor watering.
Given water is priced at $1.70 per cubic metre in Tier 1, $2.10 in Tier 2 and $3.10 in Tier 3, that outdoor usage is likely all coming at a higher rate, perhaps even the highest rate charged by the Town. That’s expending a lot of green just to keep the grass green.
With a drought possibly on the horizon, the efforts to conserve water go beyond just reducing costs, but it’s nice to know that if you do your part for the environment, you’ll be rewarded financially.
