Many people, whether environmentally concerned or economically concerned, may ask themselves this question, 'how do I save water'? There are the obvious methods such as, stop washing, stop doing the laundry, stop cleaning the dishes, stop watering the garden, drink alcohol instead; techniques many of us adhere to during our student years. However, recent studies have proven that it is possible to save water AND maintain personal hygiene.
It may surprise you to know that we use on average 150 litres of water a day, most of which we don't even notice we are using.
- Flushing the toilet alone uses 8/9 litres, so that in itself can easily add up to at least 27 litres a day.
- A shower a day can account for another 30 litres used, a bath is three times that much.
- You can waste 9 litres simply by leaving the tap running while brushing your teeth.
This makes us sound like terrible, greedy people, but the fact is many of these things are necessities. But, it is also a fact that there are more energy and water efficient ways of doing the things we need to do.
For example, we can save 6 litres of water per minute when running a tap by attaching an aerator to it. These can be purchased from ecocamel for a mere £2.95. Their specialised aerated shower heads can also contribute to environmental well-being and your savings by reducing water usage by 60%. Technology is moving quickly and it is well worth investing in modern low flow water saving products, they pay for themselves.
Keeping your water using appliances up to date is highly beneficial all around but what really needs to be emphasised is an overall awareness of our water (and energy) usage. Very small things that we can work into our daily habits such as only boiling as much water as we need, turning off the tap while we brush our teeth or shave, hand washing our cars rather than hosing them. One thing that happens in the office a lot is that someone will fill a huge jug of water which is only a 3rd used by the end of the day and next morning the remaining water is chucked down the sink and replaced with a fresh jug, which is only a 3rd used by the end of the day again and so on and so forth. All these small things add up and are so easily avoided.
So, how do we save water? Firstly, make your house hold water efficient with water saving technologies such as those by Ecocamel and secondly, just BE AWARE of how much you are using and what, exactly, are you using it for.
