Tips for Reducing Household Water Consumption
Posted in The Simple Life
Water conservation is important, even where there seems to be an abundance of water. In addition to saving money on your utility bill, water conservation helps prevent water pollution in nearby lakes, rivers and local watersheds.
In 2004, the average Canadian daily domestic use of fresh water per capita was 329 litres (87 U.S. gallons). We can reduce water consumption in the home, and in business, by 40% or more, without having to make major lifestyle changes or invest in costly infrastructure.
Here are a few easy-to-implement suggestions for cutting back on water usage:
1. Check for leaks and fix them. A dripping faucet can allow up to two gallons per hour to be wasted. Toilets are also prime suspects. To check, simply drop some food coloring into the tank (not the bowl) and wait 15 minutes. If colored water shows up in the bowl, you have a leaker.
2. Use water-saving shower heads and faucets. High-flow shower heads spew water out at 6-10 gallons a minute. Flow restriction devices can cut the flow in half without reducing pressure. Take short showers – five minutes or less should do. If you prefer baths, fill the tub only one-quarter full.
3. Water your lawn and plants early in the day. This practice will reduce the loss of water due to evaporation. Late watering also reduces evaporation. During the summer, water your plants slowly and infrequently. Consider drip irrigation for garden areas, which help add water just where it is needed.
4. Use a pistol-grip nozzle on your hose. When washing your car, you can easily shut off the water after each hosing. Remember, a full-open hose can discharge upwards of 50 gallons of water in just 5 minutes. Better still, fill a bucket with water and use a sponge.
5. Don’t let faucets run continuously. This is especially true when shaving, brushing your teeth and rinsing the dishes. An open faucet allows 5 gallons to pass in as little as 2 minutes.
6. Review your toilets’ water consumption. Don’t use your toilets as an ashtray or wastebasket. Flushing gallons of water for these purposes is very wasteful. Old toilets use 3-5 gallons per flush; new toilets are low-flow (1.6 gallons per flush) models to help conserve water.
7. Run only full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher.
8. Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator rather than letting your tap run to get cold water when you want a drink. (Rinse the bottle every few days.)
Related Posts:
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
Comments
I’ve started keeping a bucket in the kitchen sink and in one of the showers to catch some run-off.
I’ll trek out to the back yard a few times a day to empty them out.
Also, since I don’t care about keeping the grass green, I’ve installed a drip irrigation system to water specific spots in the yards.
For the last few years my job has involved providing advice to businesses to reduce their water consumption. I read your post with interest because at the moment water conservation is often overshadowed by energy conservation, yet there is no substitute for water if we run out.
Here are a few more tips for you.
* if you have a meter and can access it, take a reading before you go away for a few days when there should be no water running and take another reading when you return, if there is a difference then you probably have a leak.
* you can also use mulch around your plants to reduce evaporation
* if you have large toilet cistern you could consider reducing their volume by using a cistern volume adjuster, in the UK the most frequent type is a hippo and they are often available free from the water company. If you can’t get one of those you could use a small plastic bottle filled with water; just make sure you monitor the flushing to ensure that the pan is still cleared effectively and you are not needing to double flush.