Frugal Water Saving Tips

Davy

To make tips easier to find, use a different thread for each topic.

So any Water saving tips can go here................

Scortho

Davy wrote: »

To make tips easier to find, use a different thread for each topic.

So any Water saving tips can go here................

If it's yellow let it mellow

MarkR

Scortho wrote: »

If it's yellow let it mellow

If it's brown, flush it down.

RebelButtMunch

Put a brick in the cistern.

Roselm

If you dont drink the entirety of a glass of water pour in on houseplants rather than down the sink.

L1011

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

Put a brick in the cistern.

Does nothing on any recent toilets other than cause you to have to flush twice.

Pang

Put an inch of sand or pebbles into a plastic bottle or two and out it into the toilet cistern. Should reduce the amount of water you use when you flush.

Don't flush anything down the toilet apart from your excrement and urine, especially cotton wool, sanitary waster etc...

Fill the sink when shaving in order to rinse the razor. Don't do it under a running tap.

L1011

Pang wrote: »

Put an inch of sand or pebbles into a plastic bottle or two and out it into the toilet cistern. Should reduce the amount of water you use when you flush.

Again, DON'T do this on a new toilet.

New toilets are designed to use the amount of water they actually need to flush. Putting stuff in the cistern will result in a huge increase in the amount of times you need to flush more than once to clear it.

Pang

MYOB wrote: »

Again, DON'T do this on a new toilet.

New toilets are designed to use the amount of water they actually need to flush. Putting stuff in the cistern will result in a huge increase in the amount of times you need to flush more than once to clear it.

Thanks for adding that about new toilets. Never thought to add it in.

slave1

No need for sand or pebbles, just use water! (on older toilets of course)

livinsane

Get into the habit of putting the stopper in the kitchen sink so when you empty clean water from the kettle/drinking glasses it will go towards washing the ware.

When washing up, start with the glasses and cleaner stuff and work towards the dirtiest so you get more time out of the water.

RebelButtMunch

Select mixer taps when your re-fitting your sink

RebelButtMunch

The power shower be just as efficient at cleaning when its not at 100% power.

YourName

Get a gym membership, get fit and shower at the gym, win win ! !!

allthedoyles

With water charges just around the corner , would it be wise to buy an electric shaver , instead of shaving with razor every morning .

Of course , one still needs to wash each morning , so may not be water saving there .

Is there shower heads on the market that reduces water consumption during shower ?

Would it be wise to collect buckets of rain-water and use in house for various chores .?

Is it going to be cheaper to buy water in Lidl/Aldi rather than use metered water.?

munchkin_utd

folks, if its anything like you have in Germany, the water will cost next to nothing rather than currently being "free" (except the billion euro a year it costs to provide it, on top of the 15billion a year "free" medical service etc etc....)

Munich water is €1.53 per 1000L (0.153c/L) so your half litre of water to shave yourself with if priced the same would cost 0.076c.
If you shave every single day in the year you will have the sum total of 27c of water used .

To be honest, its not going to pay to buy an electric rasor if you are looking to save 27c a year on water.

http://www.swm.de/privatkunden/m-wasser/preise.html

L1011

allthedoyles wrote: »

With water charges just around the corner , would it be wise to buy an electric shaver , instead of shaving with razor every morning .

No, you'll never pay back the cost before it needs replacement.

allthedoyles wrote: »

Is there shower heads on the market that reduces water consumption during shower ?

Yes, but you need hotter water and they carry a risk of legionella, pseudomonas and other nasty stuff. Not worth it.

allthedoyles wrote: »

Would it be wise to collect buckets of rain-water and use in house for various chores .

In-house? Not a hope unless you want everything stained horribly. Garden use? Yes.

allthedoyles wrote: »

Is it going to be cheaper to buy water in Lidl/Aldi rather than use metered water.?

Not ever. You seem to be expecting water to cost somewhere in the region of a thousand times what it will I think.

RebelButtMunch

allthedoyles wrote: »

With water charges just around the corner , would it be wise to buy an electric shaver , instead of shaving with razor every morning .

Of course , one still needs to wash each morning , so may not be water saving there .

Is there shower heads on the market that reduces water consumption during shower ?

Would it be wise to collect buckets of rain-water and use in house for various chores .?

Is it going to be cheaper to buy water in Lidl/Aldi rather than use metered water.?

I thought I heard that the water will be free up to a limit? Meaning that as long as your not wasting a lot of water it shouldn't matter. Please let that be so.

Why not just turn your shower power down a notch?
Grow a beard

I will be purchasing a water butt though. My neighbour has a nice one that looks like a big clay vase and has flowers growing in a depression on the top.

miamee

Why not put a timer in your shower? Relatives in both Australia and USA have these installed. One was a simple timer for 4 minutes so that you knew how long you were taking. The other was an actual cut off that stopped hot water after X amount of minutes...that was in a house of 4 teenagers so I guess needs must I'm sure a simple egg-timer type thing to keep an eye on how long you were in there would be helpful.

munchkin_utd

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

I thought I heard that the water will be free up to a limit? Meaning that as long as your not wasting a lot of water it shouldn't matter. Please let that be so.
<snip>

thats the way it is with group schemes which are metered and they have a heap of allowance, 225 cubic metres aparantly, which is 225,000 litres.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/water_services/water_charges.html

So, if you use 500ml of water to shave, you can shave yourself (and every animal and creature in the district should you need something to make sure you use what you're "entitled" to) 450,000 times before you exceed the yearly allowance!

allthedoyles

As far as I know the price of water per cubic metre has not been decided yet , but it is expected that the average monthly bill will be in the region of €40 per month for the average household , when Irish Water is up and running with metered usage .

rubadub

munchkin_utd wrote: »

To be honest, its not going to pay to buy an electric rasor if you are looking to save 27c a year on water.

Besides price many people just do not like being needlessly wasteful.

My tip would be to shower like most people would wash their hands. You wet your hands, and lather up and then rinse off. So do the same in a shower, get wet and then soap up and then turn the water back on to rinse off, can be cold in this weather though. Saves water and soap.

RebelButtMunch

allthedoyles wrote: »

As far as I know the price of water per cubic metre has not been decided yet , but it is expected that the average monthly bill will be in the region of €40 per month for the average household , when Irish Water is up and running with metered usage .

I wonder will that include meter rental or whatever other charges. It's pricey enough I think.

L1011

rubadub wrote: »

Besides price many people just do not like being needlessly wasteful.

My tip would be to shower like most people would wash their hands. You wet your hands, and lather up and then rinse off. So do the same in a shower, get wet and then soap up and then turn the water back on to rinse off, can be cold in this weather though. Saves water and soap.

May give people flashbacks of being in the military

Depending on how long it takes people to lather up this can save a huge amount of water and it is pretty much standard on any setup where you've limited water, such as military installations. I seem to remember my mother encountering it on an older cruise ship too.

Jellybaby1

Has anyone got one of those yokes for making the water from the tap instantly hot? Just wondering would it be expensive to run. I find I have to wait ages to get the tap water to change from cold to hot when I want to wash up just a few dishes. I can only save so much for watering plants and I don't have that many plants anyway.

L1011

They consume rather a lot of power; meaning that if your water is heated as an incidental to your domestic heating in winter you will almost inevitably end up spending more on the power to heat them than you save on the water.

Kitchen tap consumption really isn't that high a percentage of the usage in an average house; its baths, showers, toilets and leaks.

Jellybaby1

Thanks MYOB. Yes I'm aware that the water would be already hot over the winter period, its just coming into the summer I was wondering about. Thanks for the info you've put my mind at rest.

mfceiling

http://www.pulseecoshower.com/HowitWorks.aspx

Markcheese

People are losing the run of them selves , planning on spending thousands to save a few euros ,which is grand if they can afford it and know what they're spending/saving...
I'm putting in a rain water harvesting system,it won't save me much(if anything) but I've wanted one for years (it'll be a cheapo system based around IBC tanks) but when i 'm replacing stuff in future I'll be looking at water usage
,taps,Showers, washing machines dish washers etc...
The big quick saving will be dripping taps,leaky pipes,dodgy ball valves etc..
Then it's habit ,not running taps needlessly ...

cambasque

a good saver on water is don't run the tap when brushing your teeth., just for rinsing....if you collect rain water and it's reasonably "fresh" , perfect for flushing the loo, think the loo takes 60% of a house's water.

rubadub

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Has anyone got one of those yokes for making the water from the tap instantly hot? Just wondering would it be expensive to run.

Same price as using an electric kettle.

I just boil or heat up some water that I need to wash up, then dump it all into the basin. The one on TV in the morning uses a plug top, this means the max power and therefore heating rate is the same as a high power kettle.

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I can only save so much for watering plants.

You are also wasting energy heating up all that pipework.

I often do my cleaning straight away, as the food is often too hot to eat. So you can put some water in a baking tray or frying pan and put it back in the oven or on the stove and it warms up.

Bpmull

We recently done up the house we were moving into. We put in dual flush on all the toilets. And it does seem to save a bit as when the smaller button is pressed the toilet only flushes for a fraction of the time. Also as said the cistern on newer toilets is very small anyway.

We also put valves inside the house to turn of the water to the outside taps. Although it didn't cost much since we were re plumbing the house anyway. It probably wouldn't be feasible to get a plumber out to install the valves.

One good idea is anyone with a condenser tumble dryer should use the water it stores from drying the clothes. The water is ideal for irons etc as it's very pure. Obviously I wouldn't be drinking it but it should be useful and will save a bit of water.

ShaunC

A good tip for anyone with large cisterns is to put an full (of water) sealed 2l cola bottle into the cistern, thus saving 2l of water per flush.

L1011

ShaunC wrote: »

A good tip for anyone with large cisterns is to put an full (of water) sealed 2l cola bottle into the cistern, thus saving 2l of water per flush.

Only if they're single flush and quite old. Doing this to a dual flush cistern will just ensure you can't get the bowl clean; and some modern "large" cisterns are still quite low capacity.

Markcheese

Don't know if I 100% on this but remember fitting loos with my dad 25 years ago and the standard syphons were capable of dual flush then ,you just had to take out a small plastic screw,and it depended on how long you held the flush handle down .. Assume it was for the uk regs then ...

RebelButtMunch

rubadub wrote: »

I often do my cleaning straight away, as the food is often too hot to eat. So you can put some water in a baking tray or frying pan and put it back in the oven or on the stove and it warms up.

+1 I scrape the hot pot into the bin, a dash of washing up liquid and a little cold water. The heat of the pot heats the water and you can wash it quickly. A quick rinse and its done.

rubadub

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

+1 I scrape the hot pot into the bin.

That's a good tip, as some of the washing up liquid is wasted on all the remaining fat. I have a jam jar with a lid that I open and pour in spent & dirty oil.

Another trick I had was to pour a little water in the pan which would deglaze it like you see chefs doing for gravy or sauces. I would then add in powdered instant potato and make a small amount of tasty mash. I learnt this from a housemate who always took my frying pan after me to get a taste of what I just cooked.

Doge

Right, this tip is not going to save gallons of water, but every little helps right?

I'd imagine a lot of frugallers will be planning on washing dishes and ware by hand to save on the amount of water a dishwasher uses.

The best tool i have found for scraping sauce and stuff from plates, saucepans, frying pans etc...are these:



Silicone spatulas, and they can be bought in places like Heatons for pennies.

They are very flexible and get in much deeper than a spoon or fork,
so you can actually scrape leftovers in one single swipe leaving nothing behind and can almost clean the plate / pan with one!

And besides, i think they are the best kind of spatula for flipping over meat and vegetables when you are frying stuff.

When i heard about the water charges i was also toying with the idea of using a small Air compressor to blow the leftovers off your ware, but the electricity costs might outweigh savings on water!

Its the people working in recycling centres i feel sorry for the most,
when the charges come in they'll get hit the hardest.

Imagine the stink from unwashed containers that have been lying around for upto 2 weeks? :eek:

And believe me, you will get people not bothering to wash their food and drink containers when the charges come in!

Markcheese

Was listening to a BBC environment thing a few years back ,and they mentioned handwash/versus dishwasher, dishwasher(fully loaded) wins on energy saving and on water saving ... Scraping down with a spatula will make your dishwasher work better though...
They have water saving nozzles /taps in lidl and Aldi now and again - they aerate water to reduce water use by 30% (wouldn't work in my house where taps have 2 settings on and off )

L1011

Doge wrote: »

I'd imagine a lot of frugallers will be planning on washing dishes and ware by hand to save on the amount of water a dishwasher uses.

In most cases the dishwasher uses less water than washing by hand...

wheresmybeaver

Has anyone recently installed (or know of anyone who has) a rainwater harvesting system? Something like this.


I've been messing with the water tank in the attic and I note that there are two outlets - a pumped one for our showers and taps and another non-pumped one going to the 3 toilets. So I'm assuming a rain-water collecting system could provide rainwater for another tank to supply the toilets.

What kind of cost is involved and would it provide a realistic saving in the long run?

allthedoyles

Here is a home-made Rainwater Harvesting System:


This is a wheelie bin , which will be hooked up to the rain chute , and used to flush the toilet .

bottlebrush

allthedoyles wrote: »

Here is a home-made Rainwater Harvesting System:


This is a wheelie bin , which will be hooked up to the rain chute , and used to flush the toilet .

Just curious if in the event of a prolonged period of drought when there may be no water in the bin does it defer to the tank in the attic?

allthedoyles

bottlebrush wrote: »

Just curious if in the event of a prolonged period of drought when there may be no water in the bin does it defer to the tank in the attic?

Nope - It will not defer to attic , because the flow from mains will be cut off completely on this one .

If the bin is not filling , there is a tap nearby and the wheelie bin will be filled manually .

mjv2ydratu679c

Has teh toilet been completely disconnected from the mains?

L1011

Sounds like an incredible amount of effort and hassle for when there's not much rain (or you've a dose...)

RebelButtMunch

allthedoyles wrote: »

Nope - It will not defer to attic , because the flow from mains will be cut off completely on this one .

If the bin is not filling , there is a tap nearby and the wheelie bin will be filled manually .

I suppose you could run a pipe from the attic down to it and have a ball cock inside the bin. When the water dropped to a min-level the ball cock would drop and allow the tank to fill the bin.

masculinist

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

Put a brick in the cistern.

put a brick through the windows of water charge supporting politicians

L1011

masculinist wrote: »

put a brick through the windows of water charge supporting politicians

And get done for criminal damage.

No matter who is in power, we're having water charges. FF/GP government bindingly agreed to it.

masculinist

MYOB wrote: »

And get done for criminal damage.

Not if the whole country does it

MYOB wrote: »

No matter who is in power, we're having water charges. FF/GP government bindingly agreed to it.

The people are sovereign. If we dont want water charges we dont have to have them. End of.

allthedoyles

Rosalie Clean Crossbones wrote: »

Has teh toilet been completely disconnected from the mains?

Yep- the toilet will be disconnected , with a stop valve .

But could still do as suggested above and connect to mains using a ball-cock in wheelie bin .