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Low-flow kitchen faucets
As fresh water becomes scarcer, shrinking your water footprint is as important as shrinking your carbon footprint. You can instantly cut water usage in the kitchen with a low-flow aerator. A simple aerator can reduce the kitchen faucet flow rate from 4 gallons or more per minute to as low as 0.5 gallons per minute. You’ll probably want a faster flow if you fill the sink and hand-wash dishes. In that case, get an aerator that delivers at least 1.5 gallons per minute. Otherwise, 1 gallon per minute should be plenty.

Aerators are easily added to existing faucets or installed as part of a new faucet. Kohler sells a variety of aerated kitchen faucets, and sponsors a number of water conservation outreach and education programs that earned two WaterSense awards from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Hot water dispenser
You can also save energy with your kitchen sink. A hot water dispenser is a luxurious convenience that is also more eco-friendly — maybe. If you boil a lot of water on the stove or in an electric kettle, put a hot water dispenser in the sink. These devices use a small, highly insulated water tank connected to a smaller, secondary faucet. They use less energy than stoves or electric kettles, but they are always on, so they are only a more efficient option if you are otherwise heating water regularly throughout the day.

If you need filtered water, consider a filter attached to the faucet or hot water dispenser. They are better than bottled water for the environment.

Recycled sinks
You need a sink to capture all your filtered, low-flowing water, and there are a variety of eco-friendly sink materials. A typical stainless steel sink is at least 60 percent recycled and nearly 100 percent recyclable. For true eco-cred, 100-percent recycled steel sinks are available. Manufacturing recycled steel requires a fraction of the energy and other environmental impacts involved in making virgin steel.

For a more unique look, other recycled materials are available. Cobr sells 100-percent recycled copper sinks, and EnviroSLAB offers countertops with inline sinks made from 100-percent recycled glass and porcelain.

LED light fixtures
Lighting fixtures in the kitchen also offer opportunities for major energy savings. The kitchen is the ideal place to start moving into light-emitting diodes, a versatile type of lighting that uses less energy than compact fluorescent bulbs. LEDs come in a rainbow of colors and can be very small, which makes them a good option for under-counter task lighting or other small, focused lighting needs in the kitchen. LED fixtures remain more expensive, but prices are dropping.

Consider energy, water and materials in choosing kitchen fixtures. Far from being a green sacrifice, the most attractive and luxurious kitchen options are also the most eco-friendly.

 Bathroom fixture styles, like all decorative elements in the home, come and go. One of the most enduring trends in bathroom fixtures has been copper.  Uncoated copper actually offers a certain level of anti-microbial protection that makes it a particularly good choice for the bath. Of course, uncoated (waxed or lacquered) copper does change color and develop a patina over time. While some people prefer their copper to remain bright and shiny, a beautiful deep reddish brown or greenish tinge adds greatly to the earthiness of the copper look and doesn’t interfere with its natural anti-microbial properties. Copper, unlike chrome or nickel, has a very warm look and feel. Its earthy color works incredibly well with natural stones and can be used in both traditional and modern design schemes.

The Lily copper showerhead by Danze is one of the more unique designs on the market. The flower shaped head holds seven jet spray “pods” for a perfectly relaxing and re-invigorating shower experience.
There is an undeniable warmth and elegant appeal to copper bathroom fixtures. Round out your design with this collection of beautiful hammered copper bathroom accessories. From wastebaskets to tooth brush holders, this collection of bath accessories adds an elegant finishing touch.

While today we don’t have to rely on servants for our hot bathwater we can still have a delicious deep soak in style. And this style, the Aurora by Native Trails, is one that works perfectly within traditional or more modern settings.

Silvery polished chrome is still the most popular finish for bathroom faucets and other fixtures, but it is far from the only option today. Specialty bathroom stores may offer an overwhelming array of colors, metals and styles. While there are important differences between these metallic finishes, what’s inside also counts.

Here is a guide to choosing bathroom fixtures, with comparisons of faucet bodies, finishes and valves. You can find other fixtures to match your faucets once you find a good deal on a high-quality faucet with the look and feel you desire.

Faucet Bodies

Many metal and plastic fixtures may be coated with nearly any finish, so ask about the material inside the faucet body. Also lift the fixture and feel the weight. A quality faucet should have some heft. Here are the best and worst options for faucet bodies.

Brass: All-brass faucet bodies will last for many years, and are unlikely to leak or corrode. It’s worth paying a little more for forged brass faucets. They are typically smoother and denser, so they are less likely to leak than lighter cast brass models. Most brass faucets and other metal fixtures contain lead, which can leach into the water, particularly the first water flowing out of the tap after sitting in the faucet overnight. New federal regulations in 1997 required manufacturers to reduce the lead levels in their faucets, but even “lead-free” faucets can leach tiny amounts of lead into the water.

Steel: Cheap steel faucets are likely to rust. Stainless steel faucets are good, but typically won’t last any longer than a good brass model, so the extra cost may not be worthwhile.

Zinc: Faucets made of zinc and zinc alloys are among the cheapest metal faucets, but also the least durable.

Plastic: Plastic is the cheapest, but also the least durable. However, plastic faucets are the only models with no lead.

Faucet Finishes

Chrome: The most popular finish is polished chrome, which is really bonded to a layer of nickel on the fixture’s base metal. It has long been popular, so it matches classic and contemporary styles. Chrome is tough and scratch-resistant, but keep in mind that chrome can only protect the surface of a faucet. Inferior faucet bodies can still corrode or crack from the inside.

Nickel: While polished nickel finishes are significantly more expensive than chrome, they have a rich golden tone that chrome can’t match. Brushed nickel is warmer and softer for a spa-like bathroom atmosphere. Also, these type of upscale matte finishes have a secret advantage: they hide water spots and fingerprints better than shiny finishes, so they don’t need to be cleaned as vigorously. Hammered nickel is one of the newer specialty options on the market, with a rougher texture and classic style.

Bronze: If you want to customized a bathroom, bronze may be the way to go. Kohler and other major manufacturers have faucets in brushed, oil-rubbed and polished bronze tones. They all have the deep color of bronze, but a different look and texture. Ironically, a bronze finish on a bronze faucet isn’t a 100-percent bronze fixture. The bronze finish typically have brass plate over chrome. Look for bronze finishes with physical vapor deposition (PVD) or clear epoxy coatings. PVD coatings are charged metal atoms that bond chemically to the surface of the metal. Such coatings help resist corrosion and scratches.

Brass: Golden-toned brass fixtures offer a high-end look at a reasonable price. They offer sharp contrast, and a unique break from the chrome standard. However, they are high-maintenance and typically require regular polishing to prevent tarnishing.

Pewter: The subdued gunmetal gray tones in pewter finishes offer another unique alternative to the typical bathroom faucet.

Moving Parts

You also should consider the small moving parts you can’t see on the outside of the fixture. The best valves are ceramic or bronze. Steer away from steel or plastic.

The finish should match your lifestyle as well as your tastes, but go beyond the shiny finish when considering your options for bathroom fixtures. Look for solid brass bodies and bronze or ceramic valves.

Considering what they do, it’s a miracle of sanitation science that drains don’t smell up our homes all the time. Thankfully, they don’t. So what’s up with a drain when it’s suddenly stinky? Most likely, it’s one of two things: crud inside the pipe (which may be related to a clog) and sewer gas (which is always present in part of your drain system but isn’t supposed to get into the house). Usually a smelly drain problem is easy to solve. Gross, for sure, but easy to solve.

Methinks This One Stinks

Sometimes it’s hard to know which drain is the stinker, so here’s a simple trick: Cover the suspectged smelly drain opening with tape or a plastic bag (or both). Let the room air out for a bit, then give it the smell test. If the smell is gone, you’ve found the culprit. If not, move the tape or bag to the next likely suspect and test again.

Of Clogs and Crud

A really gunked up drain can smell enough to carry into a room, and there are a couple of good clues that this is the source of your problem. A slow drain is one indication. A partially clogged drain doesn’t get rid of waste effectively, leading to more crud buildup. Ultimately, this may lead to a total clog, but it can take a long time. Meanwhile, the buildup just gets worse. In other words, clogs beget crud begets clogs. Nice, huh? The solution is to clean the drain thoroughly with a snake (see below).

The other way to tell if your problem is crud is the smell. A dirty drain smells bad, but there’s nothing like the gaseous pungency of sewage. The latter indicates a different drain problem (discussed in the next section).

A few drains that are most prone to crud-related smells and their solutions:

•Bathroom sink: The drain stopper assembly catches hair — then everything else — several inches below the drain opening. Remove the stopper and clean this section of pipe periodically to eliminate odors.
•Tub/shower drain: Hair clogs lead to soap buildup and badly gunked pipes; clean thoroughly with a snake.
•Kitchen sink: Food disposers (dispose-alls) are the culprits more often than drains. Freshen inside the disposer with Borax or a commercial disposer cleaner, and clean the gunk from the underside of the rubber baffle around the drain opening (you have to do this by hand, and it’s not pretty, but it works).

Definitely Does NOT Smell Like Teen Spirit

If your drain smells like sewage, that’s probably exactly what it is, or at least sewer gas. Every drain in your house has (or should have) a trap — a U-shaped piece of pipe that holds a small amount of water at all times. The water serves as a plug to keep sewer gas from rising up the drain (toilets have their own internal version of a trap). This simple system works beautifully unless one of the following happens:

•The original plumber or remodeler failed to install a trap, in which case you’d probably smell gas all the time.
•The drain isn’t properly vented, and a suction effect in the system siphons the trap dry. The same thing can happen if the vent is blocked (from tree leaves, bird nests, snow, etc.).
•The fixture served by the drain is too close to other fixtures, such as a toilet drain that’s too close to a sink drain; the force of the toilet flush can siphon the sink trap dry.

If you suspect a dry trap, run water in the fixture slowly for a few minutes, then shut it off and do a smell test. This should fill the trap and stop the sewer smell. This can help diagnose the problem but not solve it. However, most venting problems can be remedied by installing an Air Admittance Valve (AAV), a pipeless air vent that can go almost anywhere along a drain line (talk to your friendly neighborhood plumber).

Clogs Are Tougher Than You Think

Has this ever happened to you: Your drain smells bad or is otherwise acting up. You suspect a clog, so you pour in some drain cleaner. Nothing happens, so you pour in some more drain cleaner. After a third dose of cleaner you surmise that the drain must not be clogged, assuming that nothing could withstand such an onslaught of nasty chemicals. But guess what? A clog can.

With a lot ordinary clogs, you could turn your smelly drain into a chemical spill site with no effect on the clog whatsoever. That’s why plumbers clean drains with snakes (or pressurized water) and not chemicals. They also tend to snake a drain repeatedly even after the blockage is cleared. This is to remove the buildup of crud along the walls of the drain pipe, which has almost undoubtedly been exacerbated by the clog. So the next time you think a clog is causing a smelly drain, use a snake, not drain cleaner.