Top 10 Water Saving Tips
As you replace your existing household equipment, choose the water-efficient models available and you will save on your water usage. You might even decide that it is worth upgrading an item such as a washing machine for greater water efficiency. However, there are many practical things that you can do at low cost or no cost at all that will save lots of water.
1. Install a low-flow showerhead and tap aerators
Reducing from a showerhead with a flow-rate of 9 litres per minute to, say, a 6 litres per minute low-flow showerhead saves 24 litres of water during an 8-minute shower. Tap aerators add air into your water flow, producing a bubbly stream of water that reduces the flow rate but maintains the effectiveness of a stronger flow.
2. Have a shorter shower
Sometimes water saving is this simple. If you normally spend 8 minutes in the shower, have a 6 minute shower instead. This is an automatic 25% water saving, and will save you 14–18 litres of water per shower. (Over 60% of Irish people spend 10 minutes or more in the shower.) A five-minute shower is easily possible. In areas Australia with water shortages, 3–4 minute showers are the norm. One Australian conservation group has even come up with a method for having a one-minute shower!
3. Place a plastic bottle filled with water/pebbles in toilet cistern
Carefully placing a one litre bottle of pebbles or water into your toilet cistern will save you 1 litre per flush. Depending on the size of the cistern and the placing of its flush mechanism, you may be able to add more or larger displacements, saving even more water. Also, don’t use your toilet as a waste disposal mechanism – throw those used tissues in the bin, don’t flush them away.
4. Don’t let water running while washing hands, brushing teeth
Allowing the tap to run for 2 minutes while you brush your teeth or wash your hands uses about 12 litres of water. When washing your hands put the plug in the sink and add only the water you need. When brushing your teeth, use a glass of water for rinsing.
5. Fix dripping taps
A dripping tap can waste a huge quantity of water. Limerick County Council estimate that a dripping tap can waste up to 90 litres per day. Even a loss of 20 litres a day (about one drip per second) would add up to over 7,500 litres of water in a year.
6. Full clothes washes
Even an efficient, modern washing machine will use 45 litres of water in a single wash. One full-load instead of two half-filled washes will mean 45 litres used instead of 90 litres.
7. Full dishwasher loads
A newer model dishwasher will use about 20 litres of water. An older model might use almost double that. Turn on your dishwasher only when it is full and you will save lots of water.
8. Use plugged sink or bowl when rinsing dishes or washing vegetables
Allowing taps to run while rinsing dishes or washing vegetables uses about 6 litres of water per minute. Using a bowl or plugged sink will use a small fraction of that. A bowl of water used to rinse vegetables can be re-used to water plants.
9. Waterless car washing
Amazingly, washing your car at home with a hosepipe can use anything from 300 to 450 litres of water! Washing with a bucket and sponge uses about 30 litres (4 buckets). Waterless car products can reduce the amount of water used practically to zero.
10. Collect rainwater in a water butt
Watering your garden or washing down your vehicles, driveway, footpaths or patio area uses a lot of water, especially if you use a hose. Why not install a water butt to collect rainwater from your drainpipes for these purposes. Anything from 100 litres capacity to 750 litre capacity and beyond is possible, according to your needs, space and budget.
Our Domestic Water Usage
A recent survey revealed that 91% of Irish people have no idea how much water they use. This has to change, if we are to conserve water and use it effectively. And with the introduction of domestic water metering in the near future, we need to educate ourselves, if we are to keep water bills under control.
Our Water Usage
So how much water do we use? On average, each Irish person uses approximately 150 litres of water per day. The average household (of 3 persons) uses about 450 litres per day. This is about the same level of usage as in the UK, but higher than most European countries with similar climate and economies. However, in these other countries water usage is falling, whereas, in Ireland, it continues to increase. In 1997, it was estimated we used between 131 and 139 litres per person per day, by 2006 that figure had risen to 148 litres, and our usage has continued to increase.
What we use water for
A large proportion of our water usage is on showering/bathing (38%) and toilet flushing (27%). It might surprise you to hear that drinking water and cooking account for only 3% each. On average 12% of water is used on external uses like car washing and garden watering. Note, however, that if you regularly water your lawn or wash your car with a hose, they will form a far larger proportion of your water usage. The percentage is low because many people do neither.
Typical usage for different household items:
| Bath | 80 litres |
| 5 minute Shower | 35–45 litres |
| Power Shower (less than 5 mins.) | 80–125 litres |
| Toilet Flush (older model) | 9 litres |
| Toilet Flush (modern model) | 6 litres |
| Brushing teeth with tap running | 6 litres |
| Brushing teeth with tap off | 1 litres |
| Washing Machine (modern model) | 45 litres |
| Washing Machine (older model) | 65 litres |
| Dishwasher | 20 litres |
| Hosepipe | 9 litres per minute |
| Washing car with hose pipe | 300–450 litres |
| Washing car with bucket (4 bucketfuls) | 30 litres |
A Two-Fold Challenge
The challenge is two-fold. We need to cut out unnecessary water wastage and we need to find more efficient ways of using water.
A good example of waste is that 40% of Irish people use over 170 litres per day on showering, flushing toilets and brushing teeth alone. 61% take 10 minute showers (or longer), with 67% letting water run for 1 to 2 minutes before getting into the shower. Note that a typical shower might use 9 litres per minute so that a 10 minute shower with the water running for 2 minutes beforehand could use 108 litres of water. Half of us use this much water on showering each day.
Again, using 300–450 litres of water washing our cars is a massive waste of water when effective waterless car washing products are available.
Newer more water-efficient equipment will use reduced amounts of water. But there are many things we can do that cost little or nothing to implement. See our Top 10 Water Saving Tips.
Calculate your water usage
TapTips.ie provides a very handy domestic water usage calculator. Input just a few numbers and estimate your water usage in seconds. Alter some details to see the effect of water saving changes you can make.
Sources:
Different sources can give slightly different data concerning water usage. The figures given in this post have been cross-checked with a number of sources. The main sources used are: www.TapTips.ie Ideal Standard Survey EPA Viewpoint (Sept 2006)International comparisons of domestic per capita consumption. Environment Agency UK
Water Quality in Ireland
The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently published, Water Quality in Ireland 2007-09, the latest in a series of three-year reports tracking levels of Irish water quality. The report points to some areas of improvement, but also highlights significant water quality problems that ought to cause serious concern.
Water quality in groundwater, rivers, lakes, canals, estuaries and coastal waters are examined in the report, using two different forms of assessment. The EPA uses a new assessment framework set out by the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000), whose standards Ireland must meet by 2015. The WFD uses a scale of High, Good, Moderate, Poor, Bad, where a High or Good status implies that there is almost no human impact on a given body of water. The requirement for 2015 is that all current High status waters be protected and all other waters be brought up to a Good level. The EPA also continues to use (for comparison purposes) the generally less stringent assessment criteria it has used in past reports.
Groundwater
About 25% of all Irish drinking water is sourced from groundwater, with groundwater also an important source of river and surface water. Under WFD criteria, 85% of groundwater is assessed as Good/High and 15% is Poor – a good result. Nitrate and phosphate levels were also lower on the whole in groundwater, if increasing in some areas of the country, and the report notes that heavy rainfall during the testing period may have artificially suppressed levels. A significant worry is that 34% of samples were shown to contain faecal coliform bacteria – human or animal faecal waste being the usual source.
Rivers & Lakes
Under WFD criteria, only 52% of river basin waters attain the necessary High or Good rating, 28% are Moderate and 20% are Poor or Bad. Under the older, less demanding classification system, the percentage of unpolluted rivers rise to 69%, but even this represents a 10% drop over the past 20 years.
Again, under WFD classifications, only 47% of lakes achieved the required High or Good status, with some 41% Moderate. The main problem here appears to be algal bloom, due to phosphate levels. Under the older EPA classification approximately 80% of lakes would count as satisfactory. These results for rivers and lakes are worrying as they are a major source of our domestic water supply.
A positive development is that fish kills are down significantly on previous reports. Two three-year periods in the 1980s reported over 220 fish kills in each, mainly from agricultural pollution, 2008 saw 32 fish kills, and 2009 sixteen, none of these sixteen having an agricultural source.
“Priority hazardous substances” such as herbicides, pesticides and metals do not appear to be a significant cause for concern, though acceptable levels are exceeded in a small number of cases.
Canals
Almost all canals reached the minimum WFD standard required.
Estuaries and Coastal Regions
There have been significant improvements in these categories, due to licensing of waste water processes and increased secondary treatment of waste water. Nonetheless, only 46% of estuaries and coastal achieved a WFD High or Good status.
Conclusions
Overall, Ireland scores a creditable 85% Good/High status on groundwater quality and a more worrying 50% or so across all surface waters. Further significant improvements are needed in industry, businesses and agriculture, but also far greater attention is needed to domestic water waste and its treatment. Pollution from a specific point source is quite often linked, by the report, to inadequate waste water treatment systems in domestic houses and housing developments.
The report does not envisage significant improvement in Irish water quality or a meeting of EU standards without significant investment. At the same time, its call for enthusiasm and vigilance on the part of local authority workers, might be extended to us all, whether domestic, business, industry or agricultural users of water. We need enthusiasm for greater protection of our water resources, vigilance about the kinds of waste and pollutants we allow contaminate them, and creativity in finding new greener, more water-efficient practices.
If you wish to delve into the report, you will find it here. You might also like to consult a more detailed analysis of the report’s findings on IrishEnvironment.com.