Water conservation may not be an issue for you yet, but it’s going to be one of the most important issues of the coming decades.
Here are some ways to conserve water in your home.
Half the population worldwide are living in areas that can experience water shortage at least one month every year. By 2050, experts believe this figure can rise to 4.8 billion – 5.7 billion. Although the efficiency of water use went up by 4% globally, there is still so much more that we can do in our effort towards sustainable living.
As water is a limited resource, doing our bit to reduce consumption goes a long way in ensuring everyone has access to it in the future. However, you might be wondering what you can do to save water. Here are ways you can conserve water at home.
Don’t Leave The Tap Running
The easiest way you can save water is by getting used to turning the water off.
Brushing your teeth? Turn it off. Scrubbing vegetables? Turn it off. Make a habit of the water being off, not on. If your kitchen has a double-basin sink, fill one with soap water and the other with water for rinsing. Or use a large bowl with soapy water to accomplish the same.
Install New Toilet Flush Models
If you’re looking to renovate your house, update your fixtures, or do a weekend project, make sure you modernize your bathroom. Older toilets consume large volumes — over a gallon — of water with every flush. Choose models with dual flush or low volume flush. They reduce how much water your bathroom uses significantly. Don’t don’t need a new toilet to make this change, you can change the fill and toilet valve assembly in order to reduce water usage.
If you don’t want to spend on a dual flush toilet, you can get a converter. This transforms your regular toilet into a dual flush variant. You’ll save thousands of gallons of water every year.
Fix Running Toilets
If your toilet runs (makes a hissing sound) it means its tank is slowly losing water and then it’s filling as a result. This cycle of losing water and filling means water is being wasted because flushes are going to be inadvertently using more water than they need.
You can fix a running toilet very easily in under an hour with a minimum amount of tools and expertise.
Not sure if it’s running or not? Put food coloring in the toilet tank to see if it leaks. If the color appears in the bowl, this is an indicator of a leak. Replace the valves and gaskets to avoid wasting water.
Don’t Use Your Toilet As A Garbage
Small acts can go a long way in reducing how much water you consume every day. Don’t use the toilet as a wastebasket for disposing tissues, pencil shavings, beard trimmers, or any other thing in your house. Why? Every flush waste a gallon of water (or more) when it could just take up a fraction of a garbage bag.
Take Shorter Showers
Nothing like coming back home after a long work out and taking a nice, long, shower, right? Although it feels out of this world, it wastes water. If you’re living with other people, think about how much water goes down the drain every day between your family.
One of the best ways to cut down on how much water you use is to take short showers. If it’s five minutes or less, pat yourself on the back as you saved significant amounts of H2O.
If you want to be extreme you can turn off the shower when you are soaping and scrubbing, but that’s more than more people can bear. Instead, install low-flow shower heads in your bathroom. They are inexpensive and easy to install and newer water flow technologies mean the shower will be just as satisfying, it’ll simply use less water
Collect Water When You Can
Make sure you pay attention to how much water you use in the sink. When you’re brushing your teeth, turn the water off (as noted above) but when you do run it, collect what you can for use later. Use that water to wet the toothbrush and later to rinse.
Toothbrushing is just one example though. This rule can be applied to every water-using activity in your life, almost by making a game out of it.
Fore example, after you finish shaving your face, you don’t have to use running water to clean the razor. Instead, fill the sink with warm water and rinse it.
When you’re washing fruits and vegetables, make sure you collect this water. Although it isn’t fit for consumption, you can reuse it rather than letting it go to waste. For example, use this to water the non-edible plants in your garden, like flowers or shrubs. Now you are getting the hang of it!
Run The Dishwasher When It’s Full
If you have a dishwasher at home, using it will help you save water in the long run. You might assume you use less water washing your dishes by hand but that’s not true. Modern dishwashers running light or water saver cycles will use less water than hand washing.
A lot of people like to run their dishwasher every night, or even after every meal. This is wastes water because a full dishwasher uses the same amount as a half-empty one.
Run your dishwasher when it’s totally full and you’ll save money on detergent and conserve water.
Convert Your Garden To Drip Irrigation
Gardens are amazing, but they use a lot of water. Sprinklers throw water all over the place, with just a fraction of it going where it should and much of it evaporating before it helps your plants.
A better alternative is to use drip irrigation. Use drip hoses instead of sprinklers to send the water exactly where it needs to go. Drip hoses can even be placed under your mulch/soil so that none of the water is lost to the sun and evaporation. Plus with a drip hose all of the water goes right into your plants’ root zone, where it’s needed the most.
Water Gardens At The Right Time
When you water your plants makes a significant difference. You should not water your plants during the hottest part of the day. Not only will the majority of the water be lost to evaporation, but it’s no good for the plants! Always water your plants early morning or at the end of the day.
Check Your Home For Leaks
Always take a closer look at your plumbing system to see if there are any leaks. Even a slow drop from a faucet can waste gallons of water a month. It might seem like nothing, but all those drips add up, especially in a larger home.
For tubs and sinks you can simply allow them to dry. If you notice any portion to be wet, there is a leak. When it comes to faucets, dry the surrounding area. Allow the water to run and see if it collects next to the faucet.
Conserving water starts with a small step. You don’t have to implement all these tips immediately. Pick what you think is easy to follow and stick with it. Once it becomes part of your second nature, you can implement the other tips. When done correctly, you make a significant dent in your daily water consumption.