We use a large amount of water in our house. With two small children and two adults we wash a lot of dishes, piles laundry and need to shower and bathe; additionally my wife runs her own in-home daycare. Water and electricity is a bill that can be quite expensive at this rate and so I’ve compiled some ways to help the average Canadian save on their water bill.
While we practice a few of these things ourselves I did find in the process of researching a few tips that seem quite simple and I can’t believe I didn’t think of them before; obvious ideas and some small things. I hope you find some of the following tips useful.
- Use your Dishwasher. It actually takes more water to wash dishes by hand than to run your dishwasher when it is full.
- Don’t pre-rinse dishes. Scrape food from the plates and let the dishwasher do the rest.
- Keep drinking water in the fridge. If you keep your drinking water in the fridge not only will it be cold when you want it but you won’t have to waste water waiting for it to run cold from the tap.
- Heat water on the stove or in the microwave. Same as for the cold then you wont have to waste water waiting for the tap water to run hot.
- Install an Aerator. It attaches to the bottom of your faucet to reduce water flow without reducing water pressure.
- Fix leaky faucets. A leak of one drip per second can cost $1 a month.
- Wash clothing in cold water. Unlike dishwashers clothing washers do not require an ideal temperature for cleaning therefore you can wash your clothing in either cold or warm water. Cold water is the most cost effective but certain things do require washing in warm water.
- Install low flow fixtures. Such as shower heads and faucets.
- Purchase energy efficient dishwashers and clothing washers when possible. I’m not saying run out and buy new ones but if you are in the market for a new dishwasher or clothing washer than consider getting an energy efficient one. They are fairly easy to come by these days.
There are ways of saving water outside the home for yard/garden use that I did not cover here either which can really help out. Let me know any tips you might have for outdoors.
Any other tricks or tips on how you conserve water at home?
If you don’t already have a low flow toilet, you can turns yours into one. Fill a half litre pop bottle with tap water, cap it, and flush your toilet. Before the tank has a chance to fill up again, place the bottle of water on the opposite end of the float. It takes up space in the tank, which means the tank fills with less water each time you flush it. You really won’t notice a difference in flushing power, and it uses less water every time.
Something to think about now is rain water collection. Rain barrel systems are quite efficient now and an excellent way to collect and save FREE water to use for outdoor use. You can use it to water your lawn in dry conditions or wash your car etc.
Pee in the shower!! Sounds silly, but it will save almost 1000 gallons of water each year!
Also, have a “rinse cup” for when you brush your teeth. Saves from having the tap running while you are rinsing.
I didn’t think Canadians need to pay money for water usage. At least not in BC. On the other hand, water conservation is good for the environment.
We have to pay here in Ontario for water. Or at least we do in my area.
Can I edit this please…
Also, I do not agree with the stat re: water savings by using a dishwasher opposed to by hand. Much more energy using a dishwasher and it also uses much more water than 1 or 2 sinks worth…
@IndianaTeach http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/built-in-dishwasher-vs-hand-washing-which-greener.php
What would you like to edit?
The blogger was talking baout water conservation…and its not the first time I heard that same stat in regards to dishwashers and I have personal experience…I washed dishes by hand in my last house and after moving into our new house 2 years ago I notice a slight difference on my water bill using my dishwasher and its slightly lower… and don’t you have better things to edit…its a blog not an english paper…no need to attack people for no reason.
If you *do* run your faucet waiting for the water to get hot or cold, collect the water in a pitcher and save it for drinking, watering plants, filling the teakettle/coffeepot, or filling pots of water for use on the stove. We don’t own a dishwasher (and can’t afford to install one), so this is one way that I reduce my water usage instead of just running water and waiting for it to get hot enough to do dishes.
We pay for water in Alberta too. My water saving tip is if you have to water your garden or lawn, do it early in the morning before it gets hot or too sunny and don’t leave it on too long. I set a timer because it’s easy to forget. Also, don’t cut your grass too short, when left a bit longer it holds moisture better and needs less water.
Hi, just a note on the author’s point on boiling water on stove vs waiting for tap water to run hot.
****** The hot water straight from tap is not good for drinking or cooking. If you want hot water, you should always boil/microwave it from cold tap water, not hot tap water. This is especially true and important for babies/kids. For the reason, just do some searching on internet and you’ll know. 🙂
In BC, we do have a lot of water that we don’t pay for but the more we waste the faster the time will come when we do have to pay for it. So here’s my tip:
If your shower is far away from your hot water tank, save your 4 litre milk jugs and fill them with the cold water that is in the pipes until the hot water gets to the shower. Depending on the distance from the tank, this could be up to the full 4 litres.
You can then use this for watering you plants or if you don’t have plants (in or outside), you can use it to refill the toilet tank after you flush – just take the lid off after and pour it in as the tank it refilling. The auto-shut off will kick in so you know when to stop.
Since this is also potable water, you can put it in the fridge for drinking, just make sure you clean out the jug!
I tried to cut down on water useage by skipping my nightly bath in my large whirlpool tub (to relax!)but was stunned to see that my water bill didn’t go down. Our water is measured in cubic metres and I was sure that one tubful would be a cubic metre or close to it. I phoned the city and the person told me that it would take more than skipping a nightly bath to reduce our bill. So I no longer buy into the ‘don’t leave the tap running while brishing your teeth’ thing anymore. I don’t know what it would take to reduce water useage anymore. It did go up *slightly* with weekly lawn watering though this summer.
Two button toilets give you the best of both worlds though they can be hard to find in North America
I’m only in disagreement with one point in this post:
“Don’t pre-rinse dishes. Scrape food from the plates and let the dishwasher do the rest.”
If I don’t pre-rinse my dishes before I put them in the dishwasher, I’d have to run it through another cycle to get them clean again. & I’ve tried soap after soap, rinse agent after rinse agent. So pre-rinsing is a must for me.
I have to agree with IndianaTeach, we had heard that using your dishwasher (full) was more cost efficient and used less water then washing by hand, but after our dishwasher broke last fall, our water bill has dropped by 1/3! It’s the only thing that has changed in regards to water consumption since that time – so running a sink or two is better on water usage. As long as you are filling a sink or two and not continuously using running waster to wash your dishes! That’s just our experience. ☺
I have never had a dishwasher nor do I know anyone who has one.Is the percentage that high for canadian dishwater owners?
Sorry no tips – but the point about a full dishwasher using LESS water than washing by hand really surprised me. I would have never thought that.
Thanks for sharing, mupiel!!
Some great tips- thanks. At our house, we always shower instead of bathe (and baths are my favorite!), keep water in the fridge for drinking (so as not to waste water while waiting for it to get colder from the tap), and use a rinse cup instead of allowing the water to run during teeth brushing.
Off topic, but this post made me think of it and I thought I’d pass it on. This is especially relevant to those living in BC due to the possibility of a massive earthquake happening in our lifetime. If an earthquake strikes, the first thing you should do after you’ve accounted for your loved ones in the house being safe, is to fill your bathtub with water. If the pipelines have broken, you may not have fresh or uncontaminated water for days; however, there is almost always enough water left in the pipes to fill a tub. This amount of drinking water will last a family for several days. Something to remember!
i dont know if i can make sense of the dishwasher vs hand washing. One month i didnt use the dishwasher at all, and our energy bill was 25$ lower then usual. Made no other changes. How ever we didnt pay for water at that time. but now we do and i dont use the dishwasher at all though.
So a dishwasher might save you $$ on your water bill but not your energy bill
In response to #15 Bride To Be…. We have a two button system on our toilet and they are Very easy to find in Canada. We got ours at Canadian Tire!!!!
urouj862 is correct. Energy costs much more than the actual water usage. Look at your water bill and you will see that the bulk is due to other fees rather than the actual water.
Also, unless you are draining the sinks 2 or 3 times, there is no way hand-washing uses more water than a dishwasher. The rinsing alone on most machines that I know of is considerable. Plus nothing beats drip-drying for saving energy.
As another side note, a small squirt of dish soap also is much better than a small puck’s worth of chemical which ultimately goes into our groundwater.
@urouj82 Agreed energy use costs more but we have to talk in the volume of energy used specifically.
To deliver hot water to your sink requires the energy of heating the water, hence more water used also equals more energy used. When you use less hot water in the dishwasher, which is a measurably lower amount, than “filling” a sink it means less consumption of power. This leaves us with a question of is the energy offset equal to that of the energy used to run the mechanics of the dishwasher.
It has to be studied at length to find the balance in individual case I imagine but the link I submitted earlier is quite thorough.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/built-in-dishwasher-vs-hand-washing-which-greener.php
Thanks for your comment! I love feedback.
@IndianaTeach I never use the heat dry setting on my dishwasher. When the cycles are done I open the door and air dry.
Again, thanks for all your input!