Water saving

It might not look it, but our green and pleasant land is thirsty. Last year was the third driest since records began and reservoirs in southern England have dropped to record lows. From next weekend, one fifth of the population will be affected by some kind of water restriction, from curbs on sprinklers to compulsory water meters. This week, three water companies in the South East applied for emergency measures to ban non-essential use of water, which includes car-washing and filling swimming pools.

Blame freakish weather, global warming and a growing population, but domestic water consumption contributes too. Water UK says we are far more indulgent with the stuff than we used to be: “A trend for luxury bathrooms, with vast baths, along with taking several showers a day, has become part of a better quality of life.”

This is why a new website, beatthedrought.com, supported by the Environment Agency, encourages us to make water-saving pledges. It also provides information about the restrictions in different areas. To ease your path to water purity, here are Eco-Worrier’s top ten water-saving tips.

If you have to add, I would love to hear from you.

1. Install a water meter

This costs nothing and may save pennies. The average water bill last year for homes with a meter was £248, compared with £280 for those with flat-rate bills.

Take action Contact your water company to find out how to swap to a water meter. The first step is normally a visit from the water board to look for a good spot to install one.

2. Refine your flush

Toilet-flushing accounts for a third of all the water we use

in our homes. Last summer Ken Livingstone called on Londoners to cut back on flushing. Those who recoiled at such a public mention of our toilet habits might prefer a toilet hippo or a flush-

controlling device in your cistern.

Take action A toilet hippo saves three litres each flush (hippo-the-watersaver.co.uk;

a pack of three costs £6.99). An Interflush device saves up to six litres (interflush.co.uk; £19.95).

3. Boil what you need

Why drag out those caffeine-deprived moments waiting for the kettle to boil? Overfilling kettles wastes

time and energy, as well as water. A mistrust of the dregs at the bottom is one reason why we all do it. What about getting rid of limescale by filling the kettle with a solution of half vinegar and half cold water and leaving it for a couple of hours? Rinse thoroughly afterwards.

Take action Make way for the Eco Kettle. It carries 1.5 litres but it has a measuring button, which allows any quantity from a single cupful to the full capacity of eight to be released into a separate chamber for boiling. Genius. (theinsightecostore.com; £39.95).

4. Efficient washing-up

A vicious green debate rages about the pros and cons of using a dishwasher. It boils down to the size of your household, how efficiently

you run your dishwasher and your technique if you choose to roll up your sleeves. Here are some tips: dishwashers should be crammed before use; always use washing-up bowls rather than letting the tap run — this goes for washing fruit and vegetables, too. You can chuck leftover water on the garden.

Take action Miele dishwashers are recommended by Ethical Consumer magazine as

the most durable and environmentally aware.

5. Lock up the hose and sprinkler

A sprinkler uses 1,000 litres of water an hour, the equivalent of two days’ consumption by a family of four. Hosepipes use 600 litres an hour. If you’re not facing a ban already, and can’t manage a self-imposed one, fit a trigger nozzle to your hose. Also, take heed of Alan Titchmarsh, who promises that restrictions don’t have to spell doom for your garden. “Don’t cut grass too short; it’ll survive better if it’s longer; water at the coolest parts of the day to avoid evaporation; and plant shrubs that thrive in dry conditions, such as thyme.”

Take action Visit the Royal Horticultural Society website (rhs.org.uk) for water-efficient gardening tips.

6. Collect rainwater

Nothing beats collecting your own water to douse on the garden. The simplest and cheapest option is to invest in a water butt, which attaches to the gutter and collects rainwater from the roof; advanced models can even connect to your bathtub. Most local councils supply butts, made from recycled plastic, free of charge.

Take action If your council doesn’t come up with the goods, gonegardening.com has a simple version for £12.99. City-dwellers short

on space might consider the compactly designed wall-mounted water butt from thegreenbuildingstore.co.uk but, at £111, it’s at the pricey end of butts.

7. Turn off the tap when cleaning your teeth

The rush of running water should not be the backdrop

to teeth-cleaning. Leaving on the tap can waste up to nine litres a day if you tackle your teeth for the recommended two minutes, twice a day. Without the extra noise, you will be able to focus on achieving gleaming white pegs. Take action A dripping tap can waste four litres of

water a day.

8. Cut down on baths

In the typical UK household, bathing accounts for about 20 per cent of annual water use. Showers use about a third of the water and energy of an ordinary bath. Power showers, however, use an equal amount of water to a bath, about 80 litres. If you like a long hot soak, use your bathwater on plants, or persuade a loved one to jump in afterwards.

Take action Choose a shower with a setting option that allows you to control the water pressure.

9. Fix any leaks

Concentrate on your own home first. Then check up on your water company. The industry regulator, Ofwat, sets targets for leakage reduction and if your water company is missing the mark, you should ask what they are doing

about it. Thames Water, the biggest supplier in Britain,

has the worst record, losing 915 million litres of water a day. Take action Thames Water says it relies on customers to inform about leaks, so look out for soggy pavements.

10. Pools and hot tubs

The lucky owners of Jacuzzis, hot tubs and swimming pools are off the hook so far — except those in the southeast — but it looks as if they will be subject to restrictions by the time the weather hots up. According to the Consumer Council for Water, owners should be on a meter.

Take action If you’ve got an Olympic-sized swimming pool in your garden, at least share it with your neighbours.

Comments

[Charles Spriggs]

This is my method:
1. find household brick.
2. put brick in cistern.
Savings.
1. water displaced by brick.
cost.
1. time spent finding brick.

[Mark Mcelroy]

Anna,
I fear your comment about water meters that `may save pennies` is sure to put off some people who are thinking of installing one. Comparison of `average` charges does not really put the case for water metering in a proper context.

I had a water meter installed fourteen years ago when the last of our children had `flown the nest`. At the time my water bill based on the rateable value of the house was £380. In the first year the cost of metered water was £220. That was not a saving of `pennies`!

However, thirteen years later, the cost of unmetered water to our home would be(by calculation from ST pricing leaflet) £630, whereas my latest annual bill for last year (quite a lot of garden watering, I’m afraid), was £239.

Averaged over fourteen years of metering we have paid just £211 per year whereas the annual costing for unmetered water, I calculate, would have been around £500. The total saving in cost therefore for our household has been around £300 per year for the past fourteen years.

We do not have bad habits in water usage but a large saving in cost is available to all household with high rateable value(ours is £388 per year) where there are no children at home. This will be a significant minority of the population now that there are more affluent households(with expensive housing) living alone or as a couple.

Every one of my friends, acquaintances and neighbours who have, at my suggestion, installed meters, has made significant savings and at the same time become aware that these savings can be maintained and even increased by careful use of their household water.

[Pat Foster]

I would dearly love to save water but on the installation of a combination boiler, it takes some time before the water runs through hot when needing it. It runs cold for many seconds consequently water is wasted. This is so frustrating. I obviously would save it to water the garden, etc. but this is not obviously an ideal situation. If I had a water meter fitted I would be paying for the wasted water.

[Ekim]

Dear Eco-Worrier
I save all hot water initial cold run off water in 6 pint plastic milk containers for filling up the WC cistern.The latter has a stopcock on the feed pipe. As a male and keen compost maker, I add my urine to the compost bin using a 4 pint milk container.

You will be relieved to learn that the above does not apply with guests in the house. I am not

totally round the S bend but do admit to having time to go to these extremes. Weight lifting

is an additional potential from all this.

[Angus Palmer]

The way individuals use the shower affects hugely the amount of water that they use. I have conducted a survey amongst my relatives and discovered that several do not turn off the shower whilst applying soap, but simply step out of the stream. One of my daughters soaps and rinses twice. She is unable to explain why. Also I listened to my son-in-law showering continuously for fifteen minutes one morning. When I remonstrated mildly he said that he did not emerge from the shower until he felt fully awake!
Turn on the shower, step in immediately, wet yourself thoroughly which should take no longer than fifteen seconds. Turn off the shower, apply soap and shampoo. Turn on the shower and rinse for no more than twenty-five seconds. Job done and nation saved!

[Adam]

Currently, I am really working on cutting down time spent in the shower each morning. I have been using a timer, and my goal is to get down to 5 minutes. This not only saves water, but it helps in getting to the office on time!

Another good trick is to get in, shut the water off while you lather up, and then turn it on again to rinse off. Fans of camping who use solar showers will be familiar with this process, and I hear it's standard practice in the navy, as well.

[Jane Wells]

One of the best ways of saving water is to re-use washing-up water (provided it's not greasy) to flush the loo (sometimes, not every time, that is). Just decant your washing-up water, suds and all, into the bowl you keep in the cloakroom/bathroom for this purpose. The suds actually help keep the loo clean.

I also fill indoor and outdoor watering cans with water that's been used for washing fruit & veg, as well as run-off water from the hot tap (this can also be used to top up the bowl in the cloakroom).

[Graham Mumby]

Follow on to the comment by Ekim on cold run off and enriching the compost heap...why not avoid flushing altogether by doing some useful selective weed control although not popular with the ladies...

[Brian]

Wales has a LOT of rain.
There is a railway line running all the way there.
Can we bury a pipe at the side of the line?
'Presto' ....Water from Wales!!!

[David Nettleton]

Hi Anna, couple of points - i think manufacturers of water related fittings should be forced to apply water conservation ratings to each fitting. I met a poor lady who was convinced to buy a wonderful gaint shower head the other day, only to be knocked off her feet when she realised it threw out a river of water. That'll cost her dearly!

On the subject of swimming pools. If you choose natural swimming pools or swimming ponds over a regular type you enjoy a constant reservoir to use for watering your garden. Also, the water in such a pool never needs to be changed. Check out my website for more info.

[Paul rasmussen]

One of the greatest wastes of water in a household is from a leaking toilet cystern. At night when the pressure on the system is much higher,( due to little usage by everyone as they are asleep) it leaks our into the bowl and goes away. sometimes up to 20 litres per night or more. To see if this happens to you try putting food dye in the cystern water just prior to going to bed. if the bowl water is discoloured then you have a problem that needs attention

[Stuart Rowe]

Replying to Pat Foster March 28.
We have the ideal solution, called EcoVerta to diverting the cold hot water that is normally wasted while waiting for hot water to run at an outlet. It is totally eco-friendly in that it requires no power to operate and diverts the water at mains pressure.See it at www.ecoverta.com.au

[Susan HB]

My husband and I have showers but I still bath my 4 and a half year old son. The soap we use for him is very mild and fortunately the bathroom is on the second floor, so when we siphon the water out of the window to the garden we get a great head of pressure. One small bath almost does the whole of our (pretty smallish) garden.

[Dione M. Coumbe]

Saving and 're-cycling' water is certainly a good thing, but householders installing water meters, medium to long term, probably won't be. At the very least it will make no difference.

If large numbers of households do so, how long will it be before the cost rises commensurately to accommodate the expenses incurred by the water companies plugging their leaks? Their first concern is their shareholders, not consumers. The second question has to be if the drought ends, will prices drop to reflect this in view of the water companies needed investment into repairs and renewals?

My guess is the consumer will get 'soaked' whatever he or she chooses to do.

[Michael Roche]

WAST WATER IN TOILETS
I note David's comments about identifing leaking toilets using food colouring.
There are three types of flush device for toilets
SYPHONS these were compulsory in the UK until the 1990's. Their advantages are they are cheap, cost less than a pound to repair and WHEN THEY FAIL NO WATER IS LOST they are just poor at getting the flush to operate when the diaphram fails. 20 year life without failure is not uncommon. A replacement diaphram can be made from a sheet of polythene at no cost. These were modified by the Australians to a double flush and used in the UK from the 1970's. Their use was discontinued at the insistance of the water boards because they were concerned that the reduced flow of water in the sewers would cause blockages. Incidently Australian double flush syphons are still available and only require a plug to be removed or a plastic teat to be cut off. They are also less than half the price of dump and drop valves.
The next two types of flush device were allowed in the UK in 2000 after pressure from manufacturers who wanted to introduce an inferior product used in Europe and the USA to save on their manufacturing costs. These usually last less than 5 years and often require the complete valve to be replaced at about 20 pound's cost.
DUMP VALVES
These lift a seal and provide a single flush only.
DROP VALVES
These lift the centre part of the valve and can provide a dual flush.

IF you want to save water in the long run replace dump and drop valves with a double flush syphon. This will save you water costs and also allow you a longer flush life and much reduces full life costs for the toilet system.

[eco-essentials]

You can buy water saving devices and other eco-friendly, reusable, unscented & chemical-free toiletries and household products at:
http://www.eco-essentials.co.uk