Energy Saving Tips 6: Water Saving

While water is not generally considered an energy cost, it is not entirely unrelated and measures can be taken to reduce your energy bills and help conserve this most precious resource. It should be noted, that water companies do pass on the increased energy costs to us, the consumers, subject to the water regulator approval. Much of the energy usage we directly see on our bills when it comes to water is through heating it.

Bathroom

Here are some quick tips to reduce your energy costs when bathing:

  • Change a bath for a shower – instead of filling a bath each day, change to taking showers instead. Even doing this every second day can greatly reduce the hot water requirements.

  • 4-minute shower – time your showers to four minutes is a great way to not only save water, but also the amount of energy required to heat that water. According to Welsh Water, you could save 15,000L a year, or around £45 off your water bill alone each year.

  • Pause to lather – pause your shower when lathering up, not only will you save water and energy, it will help your soap, shampoo or body wash absorb and keep you fresh for longer.

  • Brushing your teeth – you should always turn off the tap when brushing your teeth, but also use cold water only. According to Welsh Water, you could save 6000L a year, or around £20 a year.

  • Check your shower head efficiency – refer to the below and check how much water your shower head uses. Reducing the amount of water flowing through the shower head will save the amount of hot water needed during the shower. These heads a likely to increase the pressure, while reducing the water flow. According to Welsh Water, you could end up saving 10,000L a year.

  • Dual flush – installation of a dual flush toilet helps control the amount of fresh water needed to flush the toilet.

  • Stop leaks – stop leaking toilets and taps. These leaks will not only cost money on your water bill, but if the hot water tap is leaking, then you are heating water for nothing, adding to your energy bills.

How to calculate the water consumption of a shower head/tap:

First, get a measuring jug that is large enough to catch all the water that will come out of the shower head or tap. If you don’t have a large enough jug, use a bucket. You will need to decant the bucket into the measuring jug.

Next, with the jug or bucket under the shower or tap, run the shower or tap at full for 6 seconds. Once 6 seconds have elapsed, turn the shower or tap off.

We can then calculate the amount of water used per minute by multiplying the amount of water in the jug by ten (e.g. 700ml x 10 = 7000ml per minute or 7L per minute).

If you find that your water usage is over 7 to 8L per minute, you may benefit from a more economical shower head. A reputable brand or supplier will display the water consumption of a shower head or tap per minute. Try to find the lowest possible consumption, but will provide you with the desired pressure you prefer. This will help save water consumption and energy require to heat hot water.

Kitchen

The kitchen is the next area we can look to for energy and water savings:

  • Use a washing up bowl or plug when washing dishes – this will reduce the amount of water needed if you were to wash with just the tap running.

  • Rinse recyclables - before disposing of the washing up bowl or sink full of water, rinse your recyclables such as plastics and glass. This will cut the need to use fresh water and increase the chance of your recyclables actually being recycled.

  • Fix any leaking taps – stop any dripping taps from wasting fresh water and stop any energy waste from hot taps.

  • Full dishwasher – make sure the dishwasher is at maximum capacity and use the eco setting, a partly full dishwasher is not making the most of the energy required for it to run.

  • Refrigerate water – pre-chill tap water, this will stop the need to run the tap to get cold water through for drinking. Instead, you can have colder water already to go.

Garden

It’s unlikely you will use hot water in the garden, but we can still provide you with some tips to save water in this area of the house:

  • Use the washing up bowl water to water your plants – you may need to strain the chunky bits first, but this can put waste water directly to use, saving precious fresh water.

  • Water butt – installing one or more water butts is a great way to water your garden. Rain water is much better than tap water for plants and makes use of otherwise wasted water from your roof.

  • Night water – water your plants in the early evening, as temperatures drop. This will allow the water to be absorbed by the soil overnight and reduce evaporation.

  • Use a watering can or hose pipe – this is more effective than a sprinkler system as you can land the water directly at the roots of the plants. An irrigation drip system is also a good alternative.

  • Mulch – mulch your plants to stop water evaporation.

  • Grey Water – if you are building or undertaking a major redevelopment, consider putting in a grey water system. This collects your waste water (except toilet waste) and stores it in a tank. A filtration system cleans it to be used to flush your toilets and water your garden. Excess grey-water is returned to the standard sewage system.

Welsh Water figures obtained July 2022.

Megan Baker