water

I recently read a post on Bargain Babe about recycling shower water to use in the toilet and it reminded me about how saving water is not just about saving a few dollars, it’s about conserving our precious, life-giving resource.

Conserving water has been a hot topic in Australia for quite some time (12 years of drought will do that), and with news in the paper lately about the city of Adelaide coming close to running out of water, and some of us Queenslander’s recently being on level 6 water restrictions and looking at drinking recycled water, I thought it would be a good time to write about saving water in the home. Below are just some of the ideas that you could try to save water.

Funnily enough, it has flooded here twice this month, so water is not so scarce here at the moment (ah, living in the sub-tropics!), which is why they have just finished a pipe line to pipe our water down south to the city. So soon we will also be on water restricitions. When we first bought our house, we installed a water saving shower head. While we’re not as tight with the water saving as we could be, we do many of the little things below, to save water everyday.

Saving Water in the bathroom

  • Install a water saving shower head. A regular shower head uses between 15 and 20 litres of water a year. If your average shower is 10 minutes you will use between 150 – 200 litres of water each day or 54,750 – 73,000 litres a year. By just installing a water saver shower head which uses 9 litres per minute, you could save between 21,900 and 51,100 litres per year per person.
  • Take shorter showers. By reducing your showering time to around 4 minutes you could save a further 19,710 litres per person per year. Shower to your favourite tune (unless it’s MaCarther Park) – an average song goes for about 3-4 minutes.
  • Lather up with the water off.
  • Shave your legs out of the shower.
  • Relax in the bath. It uses up less water than a long, hot shower.
  • Collect the shower water in a bucket while you’re waiting for the water to heat (and while showering). Use this water to flush the toilet, run the washing machine, water the garden, clean the car, wash the floor, or anything that requires some water.
  • Turn the tap off when you wash your teeth
  • Put a little water in the basin to rinse your razor, rather than rinse under running water.
  • Fix leaky taps
  • Fix running toilet cisterns Add a few drops of food colouring to your cistern. If colour runs into the bowl before you flush, you have a leaky cistern that needs fixing.
  • Don’t use your toilet as a waste disposal. Rather than flushing tissues, cigarette butts etc use a bin.
  • Flush Less. 20% of water use in the home is from flushing the toilet. If you have a dual cistern, use the half flush. If you’re in the market for a new one, ensure that you get a dual flush. In some parts of Australia, this is becoming mandatory for new homes. Or you could consider my father’s approach: "If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down."

Saving water in the kitchen

  • If you’re in the market for a new dishwasher, get one with an efficient water and energy rating.
  • Use the dishwasher only when it’s full; or
  • Forego the dishwasher altogether and hand wash. You only need a couple of inches of water to hand wash, not a full sink.
  • Use the plug to rinse dishes rather than under a running tap. Or if you don’t have a two bowl sink, use a small basin instead. Alternatively, I usually start with only an inch or two of water when I wash up and rinse with hot water as I wash. By the time I get to the pots and pans, I have a half full sink of water, enough for the big stuff.
  • Use only enough water to cover your vegies when you cook. After cooking, use this water as a weak stock, boiling to kill weeds in the garden, or cold to water your plants.
  • Install an aerator on the kitchen tap. This will reduce the water usage by about 50%.

Saving water in the laundry

  • If you’re in the market for a new washing machine, get the most water (and energy) efficient washing machine machine that you can afford. Use the WELS water rating sticker to assess the most water efficient machine.
  • Wash when you have a full load.
  • Adjust the water level in your washing machine to match the size of your load. Some newer machines do this automatically.
  • Fill your machine with the water from the shower. Collect the grey water from your wash to use on the garden. See grey-water grey water do’s and don’ts before doing this.

Saving water outside and around the home

  • Consider installing a water tank. Check state laws as this option is becoming mandatory for new homes. Also some state and local councils offer a rebate on the purchase of the water tank. Not long ago, you could get a double rebate in SEQLD making water tanks practically free here.
  • Use grey water to water the garden.
  • Wash your car in the rain. My father in law can be found without fail washing his car every time it rains.
  • Sweep paths rather than hosing them down.
  • If practical, wash your car on the grass and turn the hose off when you’re not using it or better yet, use shower water.
  • Don’t over water your plants.
  • Use mulch in your garden to reduce evaporation. Consider water wise plants, such as Australian natives and succulents that require less watering.

Resources

Some state and local governments offer rebates on purchase such as water saving showerheads, water tanks, water efficient washing machines etc. Check out your state government and local council websites for information on saving water, local environmental initiatives and rebates for water and energy efficient purchases.

www.savewater.com.au

Waterwise QLD

Waterwise NSW

The climate smart home QLD

Get Green Australia

There are probably many more ways to save water. If you have some more saving water tips, please share them in the comments below.

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