1. Make sure your bathroom(Shower, Shower Tray, Bath, Toilet), kitchen & home is leak free
You will need to check all the sink and bath taps – for example a washer that is worn down can waste up to 75 litres of water per day, when you add that up across all the taps in your house that’s a lot of water wastage! With plans to install meters in most homes by 2015 in UK and 2014 in Ireland, now is as good a time as any to forward plan.
Quick Tip: If you all ready have a water meter installed a great way to check for a leak is to read the water meter, then make sure you use no water for 2 hours (no toilet flushing, kettle filling, dishwasher, washing machine usage), then check the reading again, it should read exactly the same if not you have a leak somewhere in the system!
2. Make sure you use the toilet for its proper purpose?
Flushing the toilet unnecessarily wastes a lot of water, so putting hair, facial tissue, cigarette butts or even chewing gum down the toilet and then flushing is very inefficient, it’s much better to put all those items in the normal bin. It is also worthwhile checking all your toilets for leaks, a simple way that we tried is to put a drop of food dye in your cistern and do not flush the toilet for 30 minutes, if the dye colour appears in the toilet bowl then its highly likely you have a leak. These leaks are easy to fix and the replacement parts are readily available from any DIY/Bathroom store.
Another suggestion on toilet water preservation is to install a toilet tank water saver, these specially designed plastic bags are simply filled with water, closed over and do not need to be refilled. You then hang them in your cistern away from any of the operating mechanics. When you buy them make sure they are made from non-corrosive materials (anti- fungal & anti microbes) and are odour free. If you don’t feel like spending money, even though the toilet tank water savers are inexpensive, one or two empty plastic bottles can be filled with water with some sand at the bottom to way them down, screw on the lids tightly and place them in the cistern away from any operating mechanics also works well. However you will need to keep an eye on them! Make sure there is at least 12 litres of water in the tank so that it flushes properly, otherwise you will have multiple flushes and defeat the whole purpose.
Remember that if you bathroom has been recently installed you may well already have a “low flush” or “dual flush” toilet, if not and your toilet is used a lot it maybe worth keeping in mind for your next bathroom renovation.
