Tips on saving water at home:
- Turn off the tap when you brush your teeth: this can save 6 litres of water per minute.
- Place a cistern displacement device in your toilet cistern: to reduce the volume of water used in each flush. You can get one of these from your water provider.
- Take a shorter shower: Showers can use anything between 6 and 45 litres per minute. Consider getting an aerated shower head, which combines water and air, or inserting a regulator in your shower, which puts an upper limit on flow rates.
- Always use full loads in your washing machine and dishwasher: this cuts out unnecessary washes in between.
- Fix a dripping tap: A dripping tap can waste 15 litres of water a day, or 5,500 litres of water a year.
- Install a water butt to your drainpipe and use it to water your plants, clean your car and wash your windows. A water butt can collect around 5,000 litres a year.
- Water your garden with a watering can: rather than a hosepipe. A hosepipe can use as much as 1,000 litres of water an hour. Mulching your plants (with bark chippings, heavy compost or straw) and watering in the early morning and late afternoon will reduce evaporation and also save water.
- Fill a jug with tap water and place this in your fridge: This will mean you do not have to leave the cold tap running for the water to run cold before you fill your glass.
- Install a water meter: When you’re paying your utility provider for exactly how much water you use, laid out in an itemised bill, there’s an incentive to waste less of the stuff.
- Invest in water-efficient goods: when you need to replace household products. You can now get water-efficient showerheads, taps, toilets, washing machines, dishwashers and many other water-saving products.
- If it’s yellow, let it mellow: This one might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it certainly is an easy way to save water. While some modern toilets can use as little as three litres of water per flush, some older style toilets use around 18 litres per flush. Rather than wasting water, think about minimising the amount of times you flush the toilet per day and stick to the motto: if it’s yellow, let it mellow. But, if it’s brown, do everyone a favour and flush it down.
- Put a bucket in the shower: You might want a hot shower but what about all that water you’re wasting while waiting for the temperature to be right? Don’t let that water go to waste. Use a bucket to catch the unused water and then use the contents to water household plants, tend to any dry spots in your garden or fill up the fish tank.
- Put a cover on it: Not only will putting a cover on your pool stop it from being filled with leaves, but it will also help prevent the water from evaporating. This means less water used, less time waiting for the pool to fill up and more time splashing about it in. Winning.
Benefits of saving water
When you save water you will:
- save on your water and energy (hot water) bills
- help defer the need for a new water source for Auckland
- discharge less wastewater. This will help defer the need for bigger treatment plants.
