Water Saving Tips (For Everyone!)

frostman on 24/08/2018 - 12:54
Last edited 24/08/2018 - 13:58

Hi guys, with the drought happening all over NSW and parts of Australia, I think it's imperative that we ALL do our part in conserving water.
Not just for the monetary gain, but more so because this is a rather finite resource that's taken for granted (because of the humble tap).

Long time ago, people that wanted to wash their horse, hut, vegetables, bodies, clothes they walked to a Well with a bucket.
Now you simply turn on the tap and expect this fresh water to gush out with minimal effort.

Just to give you a crude but simple analogy, at work one of the levels had a water outage for few hours. This meant that no-one could use the two kitchens to wash/drink, etc. Had you seen the look on people's faces when they turned the tap on and 1 drop came out, it was shock.
People that went to fill up their canisters were disappointed, others had dirty hands from lunch where they couldn't wash, others walked back with an empty mug that was supposed to be coffee/tea…this was only 2-3hrs!

Let's all keep in mind that Water is a valuable source,

Here are my tips:

  • Close the tap when flossing/brushing teeth/shaving (when not using it)
  • Bucket Mop the balcony not hose (uses more effort but see it as exercise)
  • When boiling Kettle at home for Tea/Coffee - use measuring cups instead of filling the kettle to max
  • Keep a bucket handy in the shower, when you're waiting for the hot water to come, this could easily be 4L of fresh cold water - catch this in a bucket if you have a Mixer Shower and use it to water plants!
  • If you have a good quality Dishwasher, use that instead of spending 15L of manual water, a water-efficient DW on quick run only uses 8L for a full load.
  • Most of all, be a water ambassador for the family, if you see members wasting water point it out, don't be afraid to admonish them.
    Until someone can create water from their bare hands, they have no leg to stand on this argument

Any more ideas???

Home & Garden Water Saving

Comments

    • frostman on 26/08/2018 - 20:00

      Is everywhere in drought atm ? Is water saving really required (for everyone)

      Damn right is is required for everyone.
      You don't need to wait for water restrictions to be enforced to take action, by that time it's too late.

      Read up on history, many countries in the middle east and Africa were once lush with gushing water, these all become arid land.

      Water covers ~82% of the earth yet only a fraction of that is drinkable/fresh.

      • ozzpete on 26/08/2018 - 21:09

        history, many countries in the middle east and Africa were once lush

        Lol. Im pretty sure there is more to that, than people using or not using water saving shower heads, and the African people water their gardens at the wrong time of day .
        Also, I remember reading that in some areas sometimes (in Australia, not Africa or middle east) that we have water catchments that areat capacity, if the water catchment for an area is say 90% , then why should one not use that water, provided they are happy to pay for it. I believe currently there is no practical way to transport the water from say wollongong, into the drought affected areas of Western Australia (or the middle east) .

  • centrelink on 26/08/2018 - 09:21

    Buy tools to turn piss into water like they did on mythbusters. Keep recycling your own piss over and over for the rest of your life

    • ozzpete on 26/08/2018 - 21:11

      Hmmm, this really isn't helping in convincing and encouraging myself to drink 2 litres or more of water everyday …. Back to drinking Milo, though we could recycle the H2O from another source where milo would disguise the abhorrent colouration :)

  • Euphemistic on 26/08/2018 - 09:41

    Is it better than to only out hot water on until it heats up? Seems to me that if you are warming the shower with both running, then it will take more water to get to temperature. Full hot, then as the temp start to come up add some cold.

    • Micko179 on 26/08/2018 - 09:54

      Yes, or set your hot water temp to 50 (we have a Bosch hws & can remotely set it) & shower with only the hot tap on(we have Misting Showerheads). If you have a 'normal' Showerhead you'll want to set it somewhere between 37-40°

      • Oofy Doofy on 26/08/2018 - 13:15

        Not recommended on any hot water system, as bacteria can grow in the tank and the pipes. 65c minimum

        It will even say this on stickers, on the hot water system itself.

        • Micko179 on 31/08/2018 - 03:36

          If it's storage yes but I have Instantaneous gas!

          All hws installations (in QLD anyway) have to have a tempering valve (usually set right around 50°c

  • tannyboy on 26/08/2018 - 11:39
    +1

    Heres a couple,
    - Boiled water, put boiled water into Thermos - both save electricity and water
    - Keep a bucket in the kitchen. When washing veggies, do so in a bucket put washed water into the bigger bucket - use for watering plants.

  • forrester on 26/08/2018 - 11:40

    Water saving tip: convincing this individual to immediately cease the wanton wasting of 5.2 million litres of our precious water/environmental resources down the drain each year just to save a few dollars (even this is questionable)…
    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/6298124/redir

  • happirt on 26/08/2018 - 11:49

    replace decades old inefficient showerheads and taps …

    • frostman on 26/08/2018 - 20:02

      Correct,
      I've rented a few places in the past and they have these shower heads that pour water like a waterfall without the aerator effect.
      You essentially use twice as much water

  • [Deactivated] on 26/08/2018 - 19:51
    -1

    Water embodied in the products you consume is probably your biggest demand.

    Sure using sprinklers during the night or converting your garden to a rain fed one, and making sure you have WELS rated equipment is pretty much the standards practice these days.

    So if it makes you feel superior flushing the toilet every four days, and washing clothes in your bath then go for it. You'll join the rest of the smelly hippies.

    If you ending up getting sick because your cleanliness is poor , you'll end up in hospital and let me tell you their water use is through the roof. A small/medium rural hospital uses around 50,000,000 litres per annum. Which you will have to attribute some of to your footprint.

    So skip licking the floor clean instead of mopping, and think about your embodied water in the crap you consume.

    For me I'll skip that 2 litres of beer= 300 litres of water saved, easy.

    Ooooh and you should probably skip that coffee and forget that burger…. you have just saved mega litres!!!

    and that new smart Oz bargain phone just added 1000Kl, imagine all the water used to build those submarines we need (?)

    but hey good luck if you think turning off a tap for 10 seconds while brushing your teeth does much in the scheme of things.

    See more here…………..

    https://beeractivist.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/how-much-water…

    • frostman on 26/08/2018 - 20:06

      You misread the intent of this post.
      We're not suggesting to quit coffee, tea and Gatorade as they use water, or beef for that matter.
      We're suggesting tips to stop water wastage…

      So skip licking the floor clean instead of mopping, and think about your embodied water in the crap you consume.

      not consuming food will make you die,
      All Food/plants/ utilizes water at one point in it's life, hence you reinforced my point that water is the source of life douchebag

      • [Deactivated] on 27/08/2018 - 21:48

        Hey my apologies, and that's Mr. Douchebag to you.
        I have worked in sustainability related areas for the last 15 years and probably am a bit burnt out and frustrated.
        It's admirable to do the right thing, I lived with compost dunnies, designed grey water systems and worked on a number of large scale water projects.
        It just grates me that we tell old Betty not to water her bergonias, and all these commerical and industrial companies do jack.
        Did you know in NSW there is no main policy driving a reduction in water consumption , no funding. This means no-one is there to drive conservation strategies!

        Same goes for government waste management, no funding and no mechanisms to reduce waste. It feels like all we have is the War on Waste by the ABC, and a focus on business growth.

        We need to ask our pollies what they are doing and demand policy change, anything else is a drop in the ocean.

  • guo-au on 27/08/2018 - 00:36

    One of my former colleagues seriously argued that water resource is limitless…

    • frostman on 27/08/2018 - 09:06

      I dont know if I should laugh or get the sh*ts

  • ChrisLee14u on 27/08/2018 - 10:57
    -2

    I piss into a homemade reverse osmosis device. I then use the output for my 1months old infant formula.

  • myusername on 27/08/2018 - 14:01

    are you doing your part?

    I'm doing my part!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_7FaWnlhS4

  • lainey13 on 27/08/2018 - 22:20
    +1

    Great tips for those who weren't here in the last big drought only recently (when level 2 water restrictions were in place in Victoria).

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