am shocked at 1st water bill-tips to reduce usage please

bylromarha

Moved house in June, had a baby in July. Received 1st water bill this morning and cost has doubled per month since old house. I know the following have contributed

1) More washing for baby
2) Potty trained 2 year old
3) watered in turf

Apart from that, I don't know what else it can be We've decided to stop flushing after a wee, but what else can you recommend please?

Thanks

maow425

Apart from the obvoius 'have showers instead of baths'? I've trie to reduce my water bill, and think I've succeded fairly well. We have 2 children, and here's what we did:

Showers (sometimes we time the 6 year old)
Baths for our 2 year old are still taken in the baby bath.
Dishwasher - always fully loaded
Washing machine - we use only the 60° quickwash (takes 1 hr and uses much less water and energy than full cycle)
Never leave tap running for anything.
If we have a bath it's once a week at the most (that's our luxury, with candles and plenty of bubbles) and my dh and I share it.

can't think of anything else right now... Good luck with your water saving!

martinpike

Brick in loo cistern.

maow425

martinpike wrote:

Brick in loo cistern.

This is a very good idea, if you're going to flush your loo more often. If not, not anough water will flush the toilet and you're left with a nasty pile up of loo paper... yuk!:eek: But we've also used the hippo thing from the water company, but my dh realised that it was too big for our loo... You could also use 1pt plastic milk containers - just fill them with water (and a bit of bleach or disinfectant to stop it from going mouldy), put the cap back on and lower them into the cistern.

Dead_Eye_Jones

stick a water butt in the garden?

crutches

martinpike wrote:

Brick in loo cistern.

cork in bum?

troll35

How often are you changing your babies clothes? A lot of babies seem to go through several (not always necessary) changes each day. If the baby's babygrow is still clean when he/she wakes up then there is no reason why it cannot be used the following night. The same applies to vests etc if they haven't got food/milk or other baby deposits on them.

........I hope this doesn't make me sound like a muck tub....:)

LizEstelle

Throw away the dishwasher. Wash up by hand in 1/2 inch of hot water left from boiling kettle for after-meal coffees.

It can be done.

Oh yes... and try to use the water of anywhere ELSE. Employer, gym, pub, restaurant. Fill up a bottle and take it home. Every little helps - especially if it's done day in day out.

maow425

LizEstelle wrote:

Throw away the dishwasher. Wash up by hand in 1/2 inch of hot water left from boiling kettle for after-meal coffees.

It can be done.

I thought the kettle was only supposed to be filled with just enough water for those coffees to save on electric?

As stated above, I have a dishwasher, and with two boys and dh, it's one of those things I can't do without. After getting it, I also found it actually saves me water - with a noticable reduction in my waterbill. Can't give an exact amount now, as I've had my dishwasher for about three years now. It also saves on the gas, as it's cold fill only.

Should you decide to replace old or go out and buy one now, even the "cheap" dishwashers come with a 25-30 min quick wash. Perfectly suitable for normal dirty dishes.

eileenfromplaistow

We put the bath plug in when having a shower, and use the water afterwards for flushing the toilet with a bucket! Probably not wise to leave bath water in with toddlers in the house though.
Also, we have fed the water from the washing machine into a barrel, and it is quite scary how much water the 40degree wash uses. Try to run the washer only on a full load, and use an economy programme for all but the dirtiest washes.

doogle2_2

been there done that! we noticed increase, mainly due to washing machine. So to counter we found some water saving products for our house. It has definately helped, our shower used to deliver around 15 litres every minute, now it's down to 8 litres, massive reduction when you consider two of us shower for around 20 mins a day! The shower is perfectly good, quite soothing actually, it adds air to the water?! Allegedly it also reduces energy consumption due to less hot water - havn't monitored tho'. It's called an aerated shower head and i bought it on line from a company called aqualogic-wc.com. It cost around £20. Also had other stuff for taps and loo's might try them out next...