Water Saving in the Bathroom

We all know the importance of saving water, especially in these times of continued low rainfall, but what can we do as individuals to conserve water in our homes? The average person in England and Wales uses approximately 150 litres of water per day. More than 60% of water used in the home is in the bathroom, with the WC accounting for approximately half of that figure. Reducing this usage through water efficient bathroom products would help control and reduce water and energy bills.

Simple steps such as turning off the tap when brushing your teeth, and addressing any leaks to taps or showers you may have go a long way. In most cases, leaks can be fixed with a replacement washer or cartridge and in extreme cases fixing these problems could save you nearly a bath full of water a day.

It's worth considering water saving devices on your existing taps, showers and WC, all of which can be installed with a very limited knowledge of DIY and generally are very inexpensive. Flow Restrictors can be fitted on basin mixers and can reduce flow down to as much as 2 litres a minute, however this is a bit extreme and normally a 3.5 - 4 litre restrictor gives a good compromise between flow and water saving. Restrictors can also be installed to shower heads reducing flow down to as little as 6 litres, although as with basin restrictors, a slightly higher flow rate will give a better compromise on performance and water saving.
Don't ever consider fitting a flow restrictor to the actual bath filler as this will just result in longer bath filling times, but you could consider filling the bath with slightly less water than usual. Alternatively taking a shower rather than a bath typically saves around 30 litres when used for a five minute period.

Older bathrooms typically use more water than modern day equivalents. If within your bathroom the WC is an older version with a high capacity cistern, it could be worth installing a 'Hippo' type device to reduce the volume of water in the cistern. Many newer models of WC are Dual Flush and typically use much less water and therefore do not require such a device (and if done could actually result in poor performance and may require double flushing) so it is worth checking what system you have before making any decisions to save water.

One consideration would be to replace your existing bathroom with a more water efficient version, which would include many of the benefits mentioned previously, along with other water saving improvements such as a lower capacity bath. Also newer dual flush WCs will flush as low as 4/2.6litres. There are also many grey water recycling products available which can re-use basin and or bath water for flushing WCs.

If you are looking to save water and reduce your bills, you can speak to your local water authority for advice, alternativly  feel free to contact Balinea today to find out how this can be achieved in your bathroom.