If your home’s water supply has an odd taste to it, you may have naturally started buying bottled water. While bottled water can be a great alternative when you have poor water quality, it’s not a great long-term solution. Below, we’ll examine the pros and cons of bottled water and whole-home water filtration systems so that you can make the best decision for your budget.
Cost of Bottled Water
When you’re at the store and you grab a case of bottled water, it’s likely that you don’t think about what it costs over the coming year. It’s likely just another item on your grocery list. However, it’s important to know that bottled water is significantly more expensive than filtered tap water from your home.
It’s been estimated that the average family that drinks bottled water exclusively can spend between $400 to $800 annually. To put that into perspective, your family could be spending between $4,000 to $8,000 every decade just for drinking water. If you use bottled water for your pets, cooking, and other similar purposes, the cost can be more significant.
Cost of Whole-Home Water Filtration System
A whole-home water filtration system does require a higher upfront investment. The overall price of a system for your home will depend on the level of filtration needed, the size of the unit, and installation factors. Most homeowners will spend a couple of thousand dollars or more on purchasing a water filtration system for their home. It’s also crucial to know that these systems require routine maintenance to stay in good working condition.
For example, they need filter changes to continue filtering out unwanted contaminants from your water supply. Most homeowners will spend a couple of hundred dollars each year in maintenance for their whole-home water filtration system. Unlike with bottled water, when you filter all the water in your home, you can use it for everything from laundry to cooking and bathing.
Hidden Environmental Cost of Bottled Water
Apart from the cost of drinking bottled water, it’s also crucial to realize the impact that you’re having on the environment. Every case of bottled water that you buy requires disposing of those bottles. It’s estimated that only about 30% of plastic bottles are recycled. The rest can end up in landfills and waterways, impacting the environment. These water bottles will break down into microplastics that can contaminate the soil, river, streams, and even drinking water supplies.
Disposing of your plastic water bottles is just one component of the environmental impact they have. Their production requires carbon emissions from high-energy processes, natural gas, and even petroleum. This can leave a heavy carbon footprint long after you buy your bottled water. Even more so, once the bottled water is produced at the manufacturing facility, it must be transported to your local grocery store. This involves fuel emissions from trucks that transport heavy water crates.
Water Filtration Systems
If you have poor-quality water at your home, investing in a whole-home water filtration system is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly choice. When you first start looking at these solutions, you’ll discover that there are many different ones available to choose from. Below, we’ll compare the most popular on the market so you can make a better-informed decision about which one is right for your home.
Reverse Osmosis (RO) Systems
RO systems filter out the widest range of contaminants like fluoride, arsenic, and even heavy metals. These systems produce clean and crisp water for your family to drink. Unfortunately, RO filtration does produce some water waste as part of its filtering process. In general, it wastes about 2 to 4 gallons of water for every gallon of purified water produced. You can get point-of-use RO systems for your individual sinks or whole-home RO systems to treat all the water coming into your home.
Whole-Home Multi-Stage Systems
A widely popular choice is a whole-home multi-stage system that combines several different technologies into one comprehensive treatment for your home’s water supply. It removes sediment, chemicals, chlorine, and other contaminants from your water. There’s absolutely no water waste, making them a more feasible option for most homeowners.
Reliable Water Filtration Installation Service
Fix-A-Leak Plumbing and Heating Inc. offers reliable water filtration installation service for the Bohemia, NY community. We can also help with all your water filtration replacement, repair, and maintenance needs. Call us today to book an appointment with one of our knowledgeable plumbing professionals.
