A little Win (with the kitchen tap)

TheGardener

Like pretty much everyone - I've been tinkering around with assessment and measurement of what energy we use. We have a mono tap in the kitchen with a swing leaver for hot/cold control (left/right for temp - up/down for on.off). While washing my hands one day it occurred to me that of course, every time we turn on the tap the combi-boiler (a few feet away) kicked in. The problem with mono taps is you tend to leave the swing leaver where it was when you finished doing whatever you were doing in the sink - so the next person started with warm water when actually all they might have wanted was a glass of cold water. 
So - I put a post-it note on the splashback reminding everyone to return the swing lever to the Cold position when they were done. I also realised that when washing hands, the water had only just run warm by the time you had finished washing anyway - so why not just wash our hands in cold water (it's not like were surgeons or anything..)
Anyway - since implementing the 'cold by default' process - we have shaved 4 units (m3) off the previous 30 days. I know thats not a scientific measurement but we haven't used the stove top any more or less than we usually do and obviously the heating was off during both 30 day periods - but its a little win - and lord knows we all need a few of those these days