How to Save Water
Project Summary: Saving water in your home is a great place to start if you want to reduce your carbon footprint and the bathroom and how you use water in your bathroom is a good starting point. Find out how to save valuable natural resources and also save money.
Why should we save Water?
Whether you are online, reading a news paper or watching the TV, you are likely to see references to "reducing your carbon footprint," or "going green," and various other buzz-phrases that all have to do with becoming more energy efficient.
Water conservation and efficient use can have a massive impact on the reduction of wasted resources and money. Using water effieicently can reduce you household bills and also reduce the massive overheads required to clean and purify the water supply.
What you may not realize is that the first steps to reducing your impact on the environment can be taken within your own home, and some such measures don't even require a paid professional.
Throughout this area of our site we will be working with saving energy in different ways. Most of these, whether it is saving energy and money by saving water, saving gas and saving electricity can be done with simple straight-forward steps.
Start in the Bathroom
One of the largest users of energy in any home is the water heater, and the largest source of water use is the toilet, so beginning your quest for energy efficiency in your bathroom is an excellent idea, and may even save you money.
Here are some tips for increasing the energy efficiency of your bathroom:
- Insulate hot water pipes. Not only will this help prevent them from bursting in the event of a winter freeze, it also helps retain heat all the time.
- Fix all drips, from every tap in your house, and consider installing quarter-turn taps to control the outflow of water.
- Install a low-flow shower head. Many newer models use less water, but still have excellent water pressure, and some can be combined with "acquacycle" systems that recycle grey water (water from showers and laundry) for use in the toilet or in the garden.
- Replace your toilets. Options include dual-flush toilets which combine six- and three-litre options, or ultra-low-flush models that operate with significantly less water than standard toilets.
- Refit your toilets. If replacing your toilets isn't feasible, consider equipping them with "hippos." These devices are fitted into the cistern of your toilet, and reduce the amount of water used for flushing, and not insignificantly, either. You can save thirty litres a day on a toilet that is flushed at least ten times.
- Change a habit: turning off the taps while you brush your teeth saves several litres of water each month.
- Upgrade the taps. You can regulate the use of water by installing a sensor system similar to those used in public washrooms – the kind that stops the flow of water as soon as you move your hands away. Alternatively consider electronic temperature settings – these help you not have to run the tap forever while waiting for the water to get hot.
Having an energy efficient bathroom isn't just a way to offset your use of natural resources; it's also a way to save money.
Take a look at our video section on gardening basics to watch a video on how to save water in the garden by setting up a water butt. We have videos in our green living section on how to save energy and water consumption.
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