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There are a lot of factors that come into play with your water consumption. Anything from your faucet to your landscaping can come into effect and increase or decrease your billing. We have compiled a list of tips to help conserve water and save money!

The Kitchen

Being aware of how you use water in the kitchen can impact your water consumption. A few things to be aware of are:

• A dripping faucet with a steady drip can waste up to 55 litres of water in just 24 hours. Fixing a drip immediately may save headaches at a later date. Consider replacing it with a low flow to save additional water. Additionally installing an aerator on your sink faucets can reduce water use up to 25%.
• While preparing food or when you want a drink of water don’t leave the water running. Using a jug of water in the refrigerator for drinking water will ensure you a cold drink without the waste of a running tap.
• While doing dishes, if you have multiple sinks, instead of running water to rinse them fill one with soapy water and another with rinse water. If you have only one sink you can use a pan of hot water or spray the dish rack at the end.
• Only use your dishwasher when you have a full load of dishes.

The Bathroom

Each day on average your toilet is using 100 litres of water just by flushing. Combined with showers and baths the bathroom represents about 50% of the average home’s total indoor water usage. Here are some things to take into account when assessing your water usage:

• A dripping faucet with a steady drip can waste up to 55 litres of water in just 24 hours. Fixing a drip immediately may save headaches at a later date. Consider replacing it with a low flow to save additional water. Additionally installing an aerator on your sink faucets can reduce water use up to 25%.
• Shower and bath use accounts for approximately one fifth of an individual’s water usage. Generally speaking a short shower uses less water than a bath. If you prefer baths over showers try not to overfill the bath tub, one quarter full should be enough for a bath.
• Older shower heads use anywhere from 15 to 30 litres of water per minute. If you have an older shower head consider replacing it with a newer low flow shower head. An efficient low flow shower head will use 10 or less litres of water per minute.
• Keep in mind when you use less water in your shower or your bath you save money on your gas or power bill too, depending on your type of water heater.
• The toilet is the largest single water using appliance in the house, consuming about one third of an individual’s total consumption. When replacing a toilet make sure to do your research as with any large purchase. Toilets with a high maximum performance score can be a good starting point in your search.
• Check your toilet for leaks, a running toilet can waste up to 200,000 litres of water in a single year. Some leaks cannot be seen or heard – to pinpoint those place some food dye in the toilet tank after the last use of the night. In the morning if you see colour in the bowl you know that the tank has a leak.
• Replacing your toilet with a low flow toilet can decrease its usage between 50 – 80%.

The Laundry Room

There are a few appliances you may have in your home that also contribute to your water usage. The biggest one of course is your washing machine and you may also have a water softener.

A water softener increases the amount of water you will use in a home because it uses water to rinse the accumulated hardness down the drain every few days when it performs its regeneration cycle. A typical sized residential softener uses about 50 gallons of water during the regeneration cycle. If for some reason your water softener is running more frequent regeneration cycles you may want to get it checked as it will increase your consumption further.

When using your washing machine decrease your usage by only washing laundry when you have a full load. Also if your washing machine has a load size function make sure it is set to the appropriate size when you are not washing a full load.

Having a high efficiency washing machine can help save water, electricity and detergent all of which will save you money Some washing machines even have a suds saving feature that can recycle the rinse water to use it for the next wash cycle, check if your washer has this and save additional water.

Outdoor Landscaping

• People that have a green thumb or just love to have a lush green lawn can be hit with a very high water bill from the summer months. To help keep your lawn and garden great but to save you money we have found a few tips that may be helpful.
• Water your lawn in the cooler parts of the day, either early morning or early evening, to minimize evaporation.
• Watering frequently can actually encourage shallow root growth and unhealthy grass. Try watering less frequently with a higher quantity of water. Giving your grass between 1 1/2 to 3 cm of water once per week should be enough to keep it green.
• Position your sprinklers to water just your lawn and not the sidewalk. Avoiding puddles and run off into the street can save you water and provide better water coverage for your lawn.
• Leaky hoses or sprinkler heads can waste water without you noticing right away. Check them often and fix them as soon as you notice a problem.
• Consider using the rain spout from your gutters to capture rain water into a barrel. This rain water can be used to help water your lawn or garden and conserve water.