Water – the new electricity

Wasting electricity has long been on the sin list of us greenies – the carbon emissions it takes to produce most of our electricity (unless you are with Good Energy) means it should be a crime to leave the lights on unnecessarily or keep things on standby. Awareness has also been growing of how wasting water may be just as bad. The energy and resources it takes to collect, sanitise and distribute water is massive. And most of it is literally going down the drain as millions of gallons of water is lost in pipelines and homes across the UK.

There is plenty we can do to avoid wasting water. Here we go…

Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth – The average tap gushes 2 gallons a minute, and all good teeth brushers know you should scrub for at least 2 minutes, twice a day, so that’s 8 gallons of water a day per person lost just from brushing teeth.


Get clean in the shower – Get a low flow showerhead. They mix oxygen into the water so it feels like you are using the same volume, when actually they can save between 50 and 70% consumption on traditional shower heads. They are cheap and easy to install too.

And don’t spend too long in there. The Good Energy Shop sells an Eco Savers Shower Timer which lets you know when your time is up. Or you can do what my dad used to do when we (and guests!) spent too long in the shower – turn off the water supply. That does the trick.

Bring down the cistern -Toilets use a ridiculous amount of water, and in most cases, far more than necessary to do the job! An old trick is to put a brick in the cistern. This stops it filling up too much and so uses less water per flush.


Water your garden in the morning – If you are a green fingered gardener then be sure to water your plants at cool times so water is not lost to evaporation. So the best times are at night or early morning. Also, make sure you water from the H2O you have collected in the water butt, rather than from the mains.

Fix your leaks –The average leaky faucet wastes 3 gallons a day. Get it fixed.

Waterless car washing – There are some car wash products out there that do not require water. We haven’t had the chance to try any (as none of us have cars because we are so green, ho ho) but may be worth looking into. They use wetting agents and lubricants to surround dirt particles and absorb them, saving you up to 120 litres of water per car wash. Or, just don’t wash your car, after a while it stops getting any dirtier (I speak from experience).

Greywater collection – Plenty of water is thrown away when it could be used. For example waste from dishwashers, showers, baths and washing machines could be used to flush toilets, instead of fresh treated water. Depending on what you collect, greywater can be ideal for watering the garden.

Hope these help... you should see your water bills decrease and your sense of well being increase!

Michael

Good Energy Shop Team

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