With everyone in Ireland joining several European countries in having water charges, hidden-dublin.com offers you some top tips for saving water, resulting in lower bills than your neighbours and helping the environment as well!
#1: If you need hot water, don’t waste the cold water before it heats up:
When you run a hot tap, it normally takes several moments before your boiler heats the water. Most people allow this to drain, but with many heating systems it wastes a bucket full of water before it gets hot enough. Fill your bucket and use it to fill your toilet cistern (or at least pour it directly into the toilet bowl as a light flush), or you can use it in your garden (perhaps filling a water butt) or give it to an animal. Depending on your water, it may or may not be drinkable by humans.
#2: Check your water usage:
When we got our water meter, it took a few weeks to realise that there was a fault caused by a leak. You can test this if you’re out for a few hours or even away for a day, and the meter has used a significant amount of water.
#3: Don’t run the cold tap for a period believing that it is fresher this way.
This is wasteful - far easier to get a water filter jug and drink from that.
#4: Try to have showers in series, in other words, one after the other:
The old gag - “Save water, shower with a friend!” has a certain amount of trust to it. You can still preserve your modesty but if there are others in your home who also need a shower, it is far more efficient to follow in close proximity. Not only does it save heating the water each time, but it means less wear and tear on your boiler.
#5: Short burst on the hot tap? Why bother?:
When you wash your hands after a ‘tinkle’, do you turn on the hot tap for a few seconds, not actually waiting for it to heat? If so, then why bother - you may as well use the cold tap if you’re not letting the water heat. Again, it is less impact on your boiler, saving you money since boilers don’t like short on-off sequences. Obviously if you need hot water, then wait for it to heat! Anybody working with food, hospitals etc should ignore this and wait for the water to heat!