Water Conservation Tips in the Home

Water Conservation Tips in the Home

You know the old saying “charity begins at home” (often quoted by my Grandmother whenever I asked her to support me on a sponsored walk/litter pick/silence), well, if charity begins at home, so does water conservation.

Saving water in the home will not only help you to conserve our most precious resource for future generations, it’ll also save you money – hmm, thought that might get your attention. If you leave water to run down the drain, it might as well be pennies!

Saving water in the home is not rocket science, and some very simple tips and techniques can really help you to make a world of difference. They reckon that people generally use around 50 – 70 gallons of water every single day, and 75% of it is in the bathroom, so that’s where we need to focus our attentions first:

  • If you have an old style toilet then you can reduce the amount of water which is “flushed away” by around 25% by simply installing a toilet dam or rock-filled container. As long as there’s about 3 gallons of water left it’ll still be able to flush properly without wasting any excess water. You can easily make something yourself, or buy a tailor made device from the hardware store if you’re feeling flush (sorry, sometimes I just can’t help myself).
  • If you fit one of those low flow shower heads you could save up to 50% of your water consumption in the shower. They reduce the flow of water but increase the velocity of the spray so you’ll hardly notice the difference. There’s nothing worse than a shower which just drips on you occasionally is there? You’ll use less hot water too, so there’ll be another energy saving in there somewhere.
  • Faucet aerators are another thing which you can fit easily and cheaply. The amount of water which actually comes through is restricted by about 50%, but the water that does come through has added bubbles which makes the flow of water appear just the same. Don’t just use these in the bathroom, the faucets in the kitchen could use them too.
  • Mend leaky toilets and faucets. You’ll be surprised at how much water which is wasted, drop by drop.
  • Don’t flush the toilet unless it’s necessary. You don’t need to flush it because you’ve sneezed into a bit of toilet tissue and dropped it in there do you?
  • Take a shower instead of a bath. On average, a 4 minute shower will use around 8 gallons of water (if you have a low flow shower head) but a bath uses around 50 to 60 gallons. That’s a big difference. You can just about shower every day for a week for the equivalent of one bath.
  • Turn the water off in the shower while you’re soaping or shampooing. Lots of people step out of the stream of water while they’re doing this anyway, so just switch it off for a minute.
  • Turn off the faucet whilst your brushing your teeth, washing the dishes or shaving too. So much water simply runs down the drain while you’re doing these things, and once it’s gone it’s gone forever.
  • Make sure that you only use your washing machine or dishwasher when it’s full, unless it has a half setting, in which case don’t forget to press that button when you don’t have a full load.
  • Appliances are much more water efficient these days than they used to be, so if you are replacing any of your old bathroom fittings and fixtures or kitchen appliances, do try to choose ones which are more efficient in water use, or have water saving options.