We all need to think
about how to save water at home. Despite its apparent ease of access, our water
supply is not free and is not infinite. Water is precious. We share a planet
where safe drinking water is not equally available to all, yet we all need it
to survive - we literally cannot live without it. This is sometimes hard for us
to grasp in the UK
– where we’re a small island
surrounded by water and it seems to rain more often than it doesn’t. Yet
,
we’re
always one dry spell away from a water shortage.
We’re all familiar with
climate
change
, rising temperatures, and the prospect of warnings to
not waste our tap water after a couple of weeks of no rain. So
,
when our natural supply of water
is increasingly becoming imbalanced
, how can we balance the
flow in our own homes? In this article, we share some top water saving tips that will help you reduce your water usage.
Keep
reading to find out.
Why is saving water important
Saving water is important for a few different reasons. It saves the
planet by keeping more water in wildlife and reducing the stress on ecosystems;
it reduces energy consumption by minimising the heating and filtering that’s
needed in water production; and it saves you time and money.
Read more on why saving
water is important below:
It reduces the stress on water companies (and therefore, the
planet)
Our local water companies capture far less rain than we might assume.
12 out 23 water companies in England are classed as being
‘under
stress
.’. Most of us aren’t
aware of the extent of our water consumption, and we assume we each use around
50-100
litres a day
. Yet, on average, we currently go through around 140
litres each every day
. We’re using almost
twice
as much water as we were 60 years ago
and
our demand is only set to rise. This puts stress on the planet, as we’re
needing to use more water to provide for everyone. It drains the supply of our most precious commodity quicker than we
can refill it. In turn, ecosystems are put under stress as their homes are
being destroyed.
By reducing
water usage, water companies won’t need to resort to using more and more
water, and the planet’s wildlife can live peacefully.
Saving
water reduces carbon footprint
Lots of energy is needed to filter, heat, and pump water to your home.
By reducing water
usage and lessening the demand for water, there won’t be as much energy
needed to produce water (especially at times when water is in high demand).
Reducing
water usage saves you money
Figuring out how to save water will not only help protect
our planet, but it will help reduce your energy bills and generally improve the
efficiency of your home and garden. Heating the water in our homes constitutes
a significant chunk of our energy bills, and demanding more tap water only puts
the water companies under more pressure to collect, treat and pump more and
more water into our homes more quickly. This uses up more and more energy,
costs more money.
Follow these water
saving tips to help bring down your household costs and do your bit to
help protect the future of our planet.
30 tips on how to save water
We put together 30 tips on how to reduce water usage. Simply adding these
to your daily routine will eventually become a habit and will save vast amounts
of water. Take a look at how to do this:
Fit flow regulators
or aerators to your taps.
Don’t keep your tap
running when brushing your teeth. This wastes around 6 litres of water a
minute.
Take short showers
rather than baths.
Don’t water your
lawn. Grass is hardy and will quickly spring back to life once it rains
again.
Only run your
dishwasher and washing machine when they’re full, and use the eco or
economy settings.
Using a bucket
rather than a hose to wash your car can save around 220 litres of water.
Check the weather
before watering your garden. If it’s raining tomorrow, your garden can
wait.
Swap your shower
head with a more efficient eco one that regulates the water flow, such as
these ones from
Showery.
Fit dual flush
toilets so you can choose to use less water. This could halve your loo’s
water consumption.
If you have to use a
watering can, hose or sprinkler to save your garden plants during a dry
spell, use them in the morning or early evening when the sun won’t
evaporate so much water.
Wash your dog in the
garden rather than the bath so your garden can get a watering at the same
time!
Leftover water in
your glass? Give your houseplants a drink!
Only pour the amount
of water you need into your kettle when boiling it.
Fit a cistern
displacement device (CDD) to your toilet, free from most water companies.
They can save up to 5000 litres of water a year.
Stick a 4-minute
shower timer to your shower wall, such as these from
ShowerBoB.
Use a trigger nozzle
on your garden hose so you only spray when you mean to.
Don’t rinse your
dirty dishes before you put them in the dishwasher, just scrape off any
leftovers into the bin.
Boiling veggies,
rice, potatoes or pasta? Put a lid on it! This stops all the water
evaporating.
Let your grass grow
a bit - short grass dries quicker so needs watering more often.
When using the loo,
follow the 3P rule - only poo, pee and paper down the toilet. As well as
preventing blockages, this also saves water by not needlessly flushing
rubbish away that should go in your bin.
Use a water butt to
collect rainwater for your garden.
Use a lower setting
or the eco mode on your electric or power shower.
Be sure to fix leaky
taps and showers, they could add up to 5,500 litres of wasted water a
year.
Fix your leaky loo.
This could be wasting from 70,000 to 150,000 litres of water a year.
Use your dirty
bathwater to water the garden (as long as you’re not watering fruit or
veg).
Don’t wash your hair
every day, it reduces its natural oils. Try dry shampoo.
Rinse veggies in a
bowl so you can re-use the water for a similar task.
Use mulch or bark on
your garden beds to reduce the amount of water evaporating.
Use a home water system that only
dispenses the exact amount of water that you need.
Use a home water
dispenser that chills and heats your tap water. This saves on running your
water until it’s hot or cold enough for you - and saves on the energy used
by a kettle. Check out the
benefits
of having a water dispense in your home
.
Hopefully here we’ve given you lots of ideas on how to reduce water usage at
home. While some of them are a bit more involved, others are super easy. Even
if some of them mean a bit of an upfront cost, in the long term they’ll be
saving you water, and saving you time, energy and money.
These water
saving tips will also help save the planet at a time when climate change
not only threatens our weather patterns, and therefore our supply of drinking
water, but also the natural environment for thousands of species of wildlife.
For the ultimate in saving water at home and getting the most out of your tap
water, take a look at our
home water
systems
.
Next, make sure to check out our article on plastics
in the ocean
and what this means for your water and food.
Once you add the Smart Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add the Smart Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add the Smart Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add the Smart Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a Package to your basket, and progress to the last stage of the checkout process, we will then add in your discount. So don't worry if you don't see it before then (such as in the cart).
Once you add a new subscription package to your basket, we will apply the first month free discount, which will be visible in your cart. So don’t worry if you don’t see it right away.
