Week 7 - Saving water in the house
After a long wet winter it might not seem necessary to save water but there are three good reasons why you should:
- Keeping water levels high in lakes and rivers is good for local wildlife.
- Water takes energy to be treated.
- It can save you money - and that saved money could be put to good environmental use. Perhaps you could then buy a bit more organic food or when something needs replacing by a more energy efficient one even if it is a touch more pricey.
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| Photo by Catherine Trigg - Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2220697 |
7 ways to save water around the house
1. Don't leave taps running
When brushing your teeth don't leave the tap running and when washing up in the sink don't leave the tap running for rinsing plates. Clean veggies in a bowl of water, not under a running tap.
2. Take a shower not a bath
Turn the shower power down whilst soaping up and increase to rinse. Install a water efficient shower head.
3. Make sure your washing machine and dishwasher are run full
... but not so full they don't wash properly and you have to run them again. Run them on the shortest cycle possible.
4. Install a water meter
Record your daily water use and work out where you are using most water and look at ways to reduce it.
5. Fix any dripping taps or leaking pipes
At a rough calculation if your tap is dripping once a second you will waste 21 litres of water a day. Over time that really adds up and you are literally throwing money down the drain. The same goes for leaking toilets so do also check your cistern regularly.
6. Keep a jug of water in the fridge
Next time you want an ice cold glass of water there is no need to run the tap to get it, just head to the fridge.
7. If your toilet needs replacing go for a dual flush
Continental toilets have been dual flush for a long time and these are gradually becoming more common elsewhere and save a considerable amount of water when you are only flushing away a wee.
There are many more to save water. I will do a post later on saving water in the garden but in the meantime if you want to find more ideas, search "ways to save water" online and let's reduce how much of this precious resource we use. You pocket will thank you if you are on a meter and wildlife will thank you whatever!
I've always been a bit obsessed with saving water - I think it comes from my dad, he was very eco - and money - conscience, so if we didn't need to use / have something on, it wouldn't be! x #pocolo
ReplyDeleteMy Mum was exactly the same!
Deletewe use all our waste water on the garden, apart from shower water
ReplyDeleteWe try to but the veg garden is a long way form the house to be lugging washing up water etc. We do use what we can on te pots near the house though.
DeleteGreat tips. I always have a shower, it's quicker and I don't have the time for a bath!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking to #PoCoLo
Same here!
DeleteWe rarely use our dishwasher as there are only two of us and tend to use the same few things all the time. We rinse frugally and tip the rinsing water into a bucket to flush the toilet with.
ReplyDeleteIf washing up when the log burner has been on we use the free hot water from a kettle kept on the top.
I do treat myself to a bath occasionally in the winter as it's a good way of warming up , but we take it in turns to use each others' water then leave it in the bath to be scooped up to flush the upstairs toilet.