Saving water at home

By using water wisely, you can help secure water supplies and create greener and more liveable communities now and into the future.

We use a large amount of water inside the home – for washing, brushing our teeth, flushing toilets and cooking. You can reduce water use in your home by making some small changes in behaviour and using water-efficient technologies.

Bathroom

• Shorter showers save water and energy. Time your shower using a 4-minute egg timer or an electronic timer. 10-minute showers can use up to 200 litres of water.
• Avoid rinsing your razor under a running tap. Instead fill the basin with a little warm water.
• Shave before taking a shower, then use the shower water to rinse off.
• Adding cold water to cool down very hot water is a waste. Check your hot water system thermostat is set below 60°C.

Toilets

• Install a dual flush toilet with a four-star water efficiency rating. These toilets only use 4.5 litres for a full flush and 3 litres for a half flush.
• Old toilets use around 18 litres per flush. Put a water-filled plastic bottle or a brick into your cistern to reduce the amount of water used.
• To check if your toilet is leaking, add a couple of drops of coloured food dye in the cistern and wait 15 minutes. If you see the food colouring in the toilet bowl, then your cistern is leaking.

Taps

• A running tap uses about 5 litres of water per minute. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth, wet your brush and use a glass for rinsing.
• A dripping tap can waste up to 12,000 litres a year. Get dripping taps fixed by a plumber.

Kitchen

• Don’t rinse dishes under a running tap. If you have 2 sinks, fill the second one with rinsing water. If you have only one sink, stack washed dishes in a dish rack and rinse them with a pan of hot water.
• When boiling vegetables, only use enough water to cover them and keep the lid on the saucepan. Your vegetables will boil quicker and retain more vitamins.
• Garbage-disposal units use about 6 litres of water per day. Put suitable food scraps into a compost or worm farm, rather than down the kitchen sink.
• The dishwasher is the highest consumer of water in the kitchen. Install a water-efficient model to save water and money.
• Only run your dishwasher when it’s full.

Pets

• When washing your pets, use less water than you would for yourself.
• When cleaning your fish tank, empty the water on your plants – it’s rich in nitrogen and phosphorous.