How to save water at home

Water seems abundant from the tap, but treating, heating and pumping it has a real cost — on your bill and on local water supplies. Most of the easy wins are in the bathroom, and most cost nothing at all.

Why saving water saves money and energy

Fresh water is a limited resource. It has to be extracted, treated and pumped to your home — all of which uses energy and infrastructure. If you pay a water bill, every litre you save shows up directly as a lower charge. But there is also an energy saving hidden inside every hot-water saving: heating water for showers, baths, washing up and laundry accounts for a significant share of home energy use. Cutting how much hot water you use cuts both bills at once.

Beyond your household, using less eases pressure on local rivers, reservoirs and aquifers — important in dry seasons or during droughts, wherever you live.

Bathroom

The bathroom is where most household water is used, which makes it the best place to start.

• Take shorter showers. Cutting a couple of minutes off each shower is one of the most effective single changes you can make. A waterproof timer, or simply picking a slightly shorter song to shower to, makes this easy to stick with.
• Fit a low-flow showerhead. Modern low-flow heads use aeration or flow restriction to maintain pressure while using noticeably less water per minute. They are inexpensive to buy and straightforward to fit — and because less water needs heating, they cut energy costs too.
• Upgrade your toilet flush. Older single-flush toilets use a lot of water per flush. Dual-flush cisterns give you a lighter flush for liquid waste and a fuller flush when needed. If replacing the cistern is not an option, placing a sealed, water-filled plastic bottle or a purpose-made cistern displacement bag inside an older cistern reduces the volume used per flush.
• Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. A running tap wastes a surprising amount of water in the time it takes to brush. Wet the brush, turn off, brush, rinse briefly.
• Fix dripping taps promptly. A tap that drips steadily can waste a substantial amount of water over the course of a year. New washers or cartridges are cheap and usually easy to fit.

Kitchen

Kitchen habits can quietly waste a lot of water, but they are equally easy to improve.

• Run the dishwasher only when it is full. A dishwasher uses roughly the same amount of water whether it is full or half-full, so waiting for a full load halves the water (and energy) per item washed.
• Rinse produce and dishes in a bowl, not under a running tap. Fill a washing-up bowl or use a bowl of water for rinsing vegetables. Running the tap the whole time uses far more water than you need.
• Only boil the water you need. Boiling a full kettle for one cup wastes energy and means you are heating water you then pour away.
• Reuse cooking water. Water used to boil or steam vegetables is full of minerals. Once cooled, it can be used to water houseplants or garden beds — nutrients included.
• Keep a jug of cold water in the fridge. Running the tap until the water is cold before drinking it wastes water each time. A fridge jug is always cold and ready.
• Defrost food in the fridge, not under a running tap. Overnight defrosting in the fridge uses no water and is generally safer for food too.

Laundry

• Wait for a full load. Like dishwashers, washing machines use much the same amount of water on a full load as a partial one. Combining laundry into fewer, fuller loads cuts water use per item washed.
• Choose a water-efficient machine when replacing. Newer washing machines are considerably more water-efficient than older models. When it is time to replace yours, look for a high water-efficiency rating.
• Wash at lower temperatures. Cold or cool washes save energy rather than water directly, but because heating water accounts for most of a wash cycle's energy, cooler washes lower bills and modern detergents are formulated to work well at lower temperatures.
• Don't over-wash clothes. Most garments don't need washing after every wear. Airing clothes and spot-cleaning where needed extends the life of fabrics and reduces overall laundry water use.

Outdoors & garden

Gardens and outdoor areas can use a surprisingly large amount of water, particularly in summer. A few straightforward changes make a big difference.

• Water early in the morning or in the evening. Watering during the cooler parts of the day dramatically reduces evaporation loss. Watering in the heat of the afternoon means much of the water evaporates before it reaches plant roots.
• Mulch your beds. A layer of mulch (bark chips, wood chippings, compost or straw) over the soil surface keeps moisture in, suppresses weeds that compete for water and reduces how often you need to water.
• Choose drought-tolerant and native plants. Plants that are well adapted to your local climate need much less supplemental watering once established. Native plants in particular tend to thrive on the natural rainfall of their region.
• Set up a water butt or rain barrel. Connecting a simple barrel to a downpipe captures rainwater from your roof for free. Garden plants generally prefer rainwater to treated mains water, and it costs nothing.
• Reuse greywater where allowed. Water from rinsing vegetables, cooled cooking water and water collected while waiting for the shower to warm up can all be used on non-edible plants and garden beds. Check local rules if you plan a permanent greywater diversion.
• Water the roots, not the leaves. Using a watering can or a soaker hose rather than a sprinkler gets water directly to the root zone, where plants can actually use it, with very little lost to evaporation or runoff.

Find & fix leaks

Leaks are silent water-wasters. A dripping tap or a toilet that runs on after flushing can waste a large volume of water over the course of a year, often without anyone noticing.

• Check your water meter. Turn off all the taps and appliances in the house and note your meter reading. Wait an hour without using any water (including not flushing) and check the meter again. If the reading has moved, water is leaking somewhere.
• Test for a running toilet. Add a few drops of food colouring to the toilet cistern. Wait 10–15 minutes without flushing. If colour appears in the bowl, the flap valve (the rubber seal at the bottom of the cistern) is leaking. Replacement valves are cheap and usually easy to fit yourself.
• Fix dripping taps. Most dripping taps need a new washer or cartridge — a small, low-cost repair that stops a steady trickle of wasted water and money.
• Check outdoor pipes and hose connections. Leaks in garden hoses and outdoor tap connections are easy to miss but can run for months unnoticed. Check connections and replace worn washers at the start of each season.

Your quick-start checklist

• Shorten your shower by two minutes starting today.
• Fit a low-flow showerhead (takes about ten minutes).
• Turn off the tap while brushing teeth.
• Only run the dishwasher and washing machine with full loads.
• Put a bowl in the sink to collect rinsing water for plants.
• Set up a water butt if you have a downpipe and a garden.
• Check your toilet for a silent leak with the food-colouring test.
• Fix any dripping taps this week.