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

moonrakerz

Firstly, I would turn everything off, read the water meter, go out for the day, then read the meter again. You may have a leak.

Fit taps (in the bathroom) with lever handles rather than the usual round knobs, kids (and adults !) tend to turn these off more often, when cleaning teeth etc.

bylromarha

Thanks for all the suggestions, but I'm not sure we can use most of them as we're either already doing them or they aren't relevant:o

OH and I shower each daily for 7-8 minutes each. Would love to share a shower, but not enough space;) Last bath I had 2 weeks ago was shared with kids. No time for proper wallowing.

3 month old and 2 yr old share their bath daily, water 1/2 inch deep.

No dishwasher, 1 load of washing up per day, in a bowl, so even less water used.

Washing machine always run on 30 quickwash cycle, always full. Don't need the waste water for the garden anymore.

Baby only wears one outfit a day with changing bibs as needed. 2 year old rarely has a change of clothes during the day and always wears pjs for a few nights before they go in the wash. If 2 year old has an accident, he doesn't wear more clean trousers unless we're going out or it's before 11am.

House is brand new and all taps are levers, not twisters. Toilets are small, ecological cisterns with choice of flush for number 1 or 2.

Grass was only thing watered in, not watered at all now and no plants planted yet to keep moist.

Will see if there's a leak as we're out all day sunday...good idea. Thanks.

Will try to stick cork in 2 year olds bum...will save the extra carpet cleaning I have to occasionally do.:rolleyes:

doogle2_2

the shower then! time how long in seconds it takes to fill a 1 litre jug and let me know. You could potentially halve the water used , i recon we save around 7000 litres per month... An 8 minute shower could use more than a bath, it's true.. If it was say 15 lpm x 8 mins, then you have used 120 litres!!! a bath is around 100 litres, i have become an expert in water saving overnight, dead easy.

Kilty_2

WaterSavingExpert?

Sorry, had to be said.......

I'll get my coat.

doogle2_2

thanks, u think i should give up my day job?

Get's even better, been looking at the energy benefits too, just can't figure out how to make the correlation yet. Seen some interesting stuff on govt sites but still waiting for more bills to verify.

Any advice on the energy water link saving would be good...

Slartibardfast_2

See http://www.waterwise.org.uk for more info.

Hope this helps.

deanos

Its too late now but if you have turffed your garden you can claim the water charge back, you ring with the reading before and after and they adjust your bill this usually applies to new builds only but sometimes they will allow older properties as well, im not sure if all water co's allow this but some do

brassmonkey001

I've put some of the empty baby food jars in the toilet cisterns (after washing them out of course) to reduce the amount that gets flushed. The jars are small so you can fine tune the amount you put in to suit. Also, you don't have to add bleach or anything to them because you leave the tops off so the water inside moves rather than becoming stagnant, and you don't have to worry about them floating and moving about like you would with plastic bottles.

It's not advisable to put a brick in your cistern as they can disintegrate over time and cause problems with the flushing mechanism.
And I wouldn't buy one of those Hippo things to go in the cistern when I can reuse something else I've already paid for.

We also keep the water that we use to warm the babies bottles, let it cool and water the plants with it.

To anyone wanting to save water I would advise putting the plug in every time you turn on the tap. You will soon see how much water is wasted when you are just quickly swilling a cup, washing your hands, brushing your teeth etc.


To the OP - I assume you are on a meter? I would check the meter reading and see how it tallies up with your bill. They could be overestimating your usage.
I also assume you took a meter reading when you moved in? You may have been charged for the previous occupants usage.

knuckledragger

When showering, wet yourself thoroughly head to foot then turn the shower off! Apply soap/shower gel, then lather hair with shampoo. Just tot up in your head how long this has taken. Turn the shower back on and rinse off. This will probably save you 50% of the water NEEDED to shower effectively.

tomstickland

LizEstelle wrote:

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.

Surely, such parasitism is theft?
LOL.

The day they catch you in the toilets at work running a hose pipe to the 500L container in the boot of your car you'll be up before the style police.

There is a lot to be said for the economies of taking a dump at work.