How much water do you think you use in a day? As an estimate, a family of four can use 450 litres a day, a staggering amount over the year. Water is in short supply; tough to comprehend when you consider that during the winter months, the country can be awash with floods. But this water drains away, and with less water filling our reservoirs, it makes sense to conserve as much water as possible.
These five clever tricks can help you to use less water, thereby saving the environment. For those homes on a water meter, it can also help in spending less on your water.
1 Turn Off Taps and Fix Leaking Taps
Do you leave the tap running as you brush your teeth? If you do, you are wasting six litres of water a minute. It is the one fiddly job that you probably hate doing but fixing leaky taps is essential in your quest to waste less water. A dripping tap can waste 60 litres of water a week. If you can’t fix the tap yourself, there are bound to be local plumbers or ‘odd job’ companies that can complete the job.
2 Four Minute Showers
Lingering in the shower either in the morning or evening spells disaster for water consumption. A shower is the best option for keeping cleaning, using less water than a bath.
But a 20-minute shower uses vast amounts of water. Experts say that a 4-minute shower should be the maximum and for extra water efficiency, an efficient showerhead, available for various online and high street retailers also help to conserve water. Don’t forget to make sure your central heating system is up to scratch, as the less time you need for the shower to warm up, the less water you’ll use.
3 Wash with a Full Load Only
Modern washing machines have all kinds of electronic detection systems that mean they use the minimum amount of water to wash a load. However, the best way to save money is to only wash when you have the maximum load capacity for your machine. Therefore, if you have an 8kg load washing machine, only use it when you have an 8kg load.
4 Install a Low-Flush Toilet
Dual flushing or low-flush toilets allow you to flush waste fully away without using litres and litres of water. Encourage family members to only use the full flush when it is necessary and avoid ‘excessive’ flushing.
5 Collect Rainwater
Watering your garden with water from the tap is wasteful, especially when you can use a black bin or other large plastic container to harvest rainwater. Placing a bucket under drainpipes rather than allowing the water to waste away down the drain is also a great way of holding on to as much rainwater as possible. Use this rainwater to keep your blooms, shrubs and trees hydrated during the winter months.
BONUS TIP – just like the washing machine, it can be tempting to run the dishwasher when it is half full but unlike a washing machine, it doesn’t regulate the amount of water it uses – in other words, only run the dishwasher when it is full so that you get the full benefit of it.
