Ways to Save Water in the Home

Whether you are looking for ways to save water for financial reasons or because of a shortage of water in your area, there are many ways that you can do so.

Saving water will obviously cut your water bills (and also possibly your electric bills with hot water) and is essential in areas where fresh water may be in short supply or there is a drought situation. Even in countries like the UK, droughts can be declared and reservoir levels can drop after a prolonged period without much rain.

Looking at ways to save water is a logical and ecological necessity in this day and age. Many pieces of plumbing equipment were not designed in mind of saving water but recently devices have become available that enable you to do so fairly easily. If you are buying new plumbing equipment then make sure it is rated as water-efficient so that you get the most up to date and cost-saving equipment.

There are two main ways of restricting the amount of water that flushes through your toilet. The first method is to insert an object into the cistern so that not so much water enters the system and gets flushed through. Years ago people would put a brick in the cistern to do this and although this is a crude method it certainly works, albeit there are different devices available today. You can buy water saving eco-kits that have a similar device plus other items to help you save water in your bathroom.

The second way to save water in your toilet is to fit a different valve in the toilet cistern which allows you to choose either a small or large amount of water to flush. You can also install water saving devices that allow you to calibrate the amount of water that the system uses. In this way you can save significant amounts of water each time you flush.

Many of the devices that you can buy do not require any plumbing knowledge to install and some of them do not even require tools. If you want to completely change the flush itself it is worth getting a plumber to do the job so that you do not end up with any leaks which can then negate the effects of the water saving.

Check out some of the water saving devices below that you can use in your cistern.

There are a few ways that you can save water when you use your shower. The first is pretty obvious and that is to try and cut down on the time you take in the shower. If you cut down by just a few minutes a day then this can help.

A more effective way is to fit an adapter to your shower head. This is a really quick, easy and cheap method of saving some water costs. There are a few adapters available – some will slow water down to a trickle when it reaches the right temperature so that you do not waste water when waiting for your shower to heat up, and some will actually reduce the flow of water through your shower. The latter adapter is only really useful if you fit it to a shower that has a good flow of water, otherwise you might end up with a shower that is not powerful enough to use. But if you do have a powerful shower, then reducing the flow still leaves a sufficient amount of water coming out but saves you money.

Another way to save water in the shower is to change your shower head to a water saving device. New technology has produced shower heads that not only have variable flow settings but also have been engineered to produce the most water-efficient spray patterns.These shower head use significantly less water but have the feel of a traditional shower.

To save water everyday from using your taps in the kitchen and bathroom, you can fir aerators to the taps that reduce the flow of water that comes out. These are easy to fit and don't have a downside really as the majority of the time you do not need the full flow of water that comes through.