 Using water wisely
February 10th 2006
One area that can lead to immediate savings is the bathroom. Toilets, showers and taps can all make a large contribution to water saving within a business or a home. The Bathroom Manufacturers Association takes a look at where savings can be made.
Climate change due to global warming is delivering less rain to the British Isles, significant growth in the population is demanding more homes and the planned conurbations are demanding a greater supply of water.
The Government has a number of initiatives to encourage us all to use less water. Some of these initiatives relate to the bathroom – water used in baths, in flushing toilets and in showers is being examined and the bathroom manufacturers that make up the membership of the Bathroom Manufacturers Association are responding positively.
This article is aimed at helping you to use the water more wisely and, eventually, help you to control your water bills with water efficient bathroom product such as flush-efficient WC’s, taps, showers and baths.
Using the toilet WC’s are still one of the largest waterusers in the home even though the amount of water used to flush our toilets has tumbled from 3 gallons (13 litres) in the 1950’s to today’s dual-choice flushing levels of 6 or 4.5 litres.
There are around 45 million WC’s in UK homes, using an estimated 2 billion litres of fresh water every day. Over 7 million of those WC’s use 13 litres of water – and approximately 5 million WCs are the latest low-flush.
Sanitaryware is a wonderfully hard-working material so, it doesn’t wear out, the result is that we have around 40 million old WC’s which are using excessive amounts of water. If you would like to save water, why not change to a new WC that uses less than 6 litres per flush?
Why not go a step further – all products in today’s modern bathroom can be specified to use less water – so the ultimate in saving water is to change that old water guzzling bathroom suite with an ultra modern one.
Factoid
Did you know that on average we use the loo 5 times a day – if you have pre 1950 WC as much as 10 950 litres of water can be wasted per person over a one year period. That’s 2200 buckets-full over the year or two baths-full per week – change that loo today!.
Install a modern dual flush toilet, with a split flush button and you will have the choice of pressing the smaller button for a 4 litre flush (ideal for liquid waste) or the larger button for more substantial waste. 4 times out of 5 you will only need to use the smaller button, which will give you an average saving of 3 litres per flush if you have a modern toilet – and a huge saving of 9 litres if your toilet is more than 25 years old!.
Bin it don’t Flush it!
Many people use the toilet as a waste bin for tissues, cotton wool, waste food etc. To save unnecessary waste of water, wrap and throw them away in a suitable bin.
Maintenance
Fit new washers in cisterns that are overflowing to prevent wastage.
Don’t leave the tap running!
Cleaning your teeth under running water can use as much as 10 litres of water per minute – the British Dental Health Foundation suggests you spend 5 minutes a day cleaning your teeth that’s 18 250 litres of water per year. Use a tumbler of water for rinsing and save 9 litres of water per minute. That’s 16 425 litres of water per person per year and across the nation 960 billion litres of water saved during 1 year.
Plug it!
Put the plug in when washing hands or shaving in a basin, rather than leaving the tap running. On average, basin taps deliver 8 litres of water per minute. On average use a basin will take 4 litres of water, that’s a saving of 50%!.
Don’t be a drip.
Fix that dripping tap – for every tap left dripping around 90 litres of water is wasted every week – approximately 4680 litres wasted every year.
Soakers beware.
Taking a shower instead of a bath will save around 55% of the water that you use. An average thermostatic shower uses 9 litres of water per minute. The average person spends 5 minutes in the shower, using 45 litres of water. If you reduce the time you spend by one minute you could save, a total of 3285 litres, over the year.
So take a shower more often and save the bath for those relaxing moments. But be warned, power showers can use over 20 litres of water a minute.
Tap technology
Install press-taps in cloakrooms. Press-taps switch off after a short while and as most people only use the basin in cloakrooms for rinsing hands, it discourages use of running water.
Indicator taps – there are taps available that tell you that you are turning them on full, it’s a gentle reminder that perhaps you don’t need to use so much water.
Cleaning
We all like a clean bathroom so when cleaning the bathroom only turn the tap on to rinse the fixtures and fittings, as far as the cleaning cloth is concerned, rinse it in the basin – with the plug in!
Dead-legs and Leaks
Insulate all exposed water pipes, especially those that contain a dead-leg of water. A dead-leg is a piece of pipe-work where the water remains in the pipe once the delivery mechanism has been turned off – a lot of water can be lost and a lot of damage done if the pipes burst.
During the planning process ask your plumber to keep these ‘dead-legs’ of water to a minimum. If you have to run the basin or bath taps even the shower, until the cooled water is removed and the hot water arrives, you can run-off more water than is actually used! Careful siting of hot water storage cylinders and boilers can help reduce this expensive waste. Know where your stop taps are located. If a pipe bursts, you can waste copious amounts of water, and cause untold damage to the home if you can’t switch the water supply off.
Value for money
Consider fitting a water meter. It will help you to be more conscious about using water and save you money! Use bath water to water garden plants and the lawn especially in hot dry summers.
The Bathroom Manufacturers Association is continuing to work with Government, the Water Industry and others to encourage everyone, to use water wisely.
There are approximately 60 million people living in the UK, using on average 150 litres of water per day for washing, cooking and drinking. Improvements in lifestyle and new technologies within the domestic environment mean we use 55% more water than we did 25 years ago. Half of this water is used within the bathroom environment. As climate change takes a greater hold on the environment, we are constantly being asked to use water wisely.
The Bathroom Manufacturers Association (BMA) is the trade association that represents the major manufacturers of bathroom products, ranging from sanitaryware, baths, taps, showers, enclosures, accessories and furniture.
If you would like to help save water – study the BMA’s top 20 tips for saving water in the bathroom, you’ll find them on the Water Hog site of www.bathroom-association.org More articles from The Bathroom Manufacturers Assoc: | 
