F15
Issued 16/10/2002

91 Hammond Avenue, PO Box 456
Wagga Wagga NSW 2650
Phone 02 6922 0608 Fax: 02 6921 2241
Email: admin@rwcc.com.au

Imagine 900 one-litre milk cartons filled with water sitting on your doorstep each morning!. Astonishingly, that's how much water is used every day by the average Australian household.

HOW MUCH WATER DO WE USE INDOORS ?*

An average tap flows at a rate of up to 20 litres per minute, depending on how far it's turned on. Apply this to how we use water in different rooms in the house (see below) and the figures are surprising.

5 litres
5 litres
12 litres
200 litres
100 litres

In the kitchen
Drinking, cooking & cleaning per person
Dishwashing by hand
Dishwasher
Garbage disposal unit

10 ltrs/day
20 ltrs/day
50 ltrs/use
10 ltrs/use

We can reduce community demand for this precious resource if we all use water more carefully.  

SAVE WATER, SAVE MONEY, SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
Reducing your demand for water will eliminate or defer the need for new dams and supply systems, reduce operating costs for treating and distributing water and contain your household water charges.

The aim of Water Wise is to help you achieve a balance between what you pay in water bills and the benefits you obtain from the water supply.

BE WATERWISE INDOORS
How can we avoid wasting water without affecting our lifestyle?. It’s easy - read on and just follow the simple tips in this fact sheet.

In the bathroom:

• Install a dual flush toilet. Modern toilets give the option to flush either half or all the cistern's water. Traditional toilets can usually be converted to dual flush.

  Single flush cisterns have a capacity of between 9 and 12 litres. Dual flush cisterns are mostly 3 and 6 litres flush. If each person in the house flushes five times per day:

Single - 5 @ 10 litres = 50 litres
Dual:
1 @ 6 litres )
4 @ 3 litres ) = 18 litres
daily saving 32 litres per person

Tips for the bathroom:
- Don't turn the taps on quickly. Adding cold water to balance hot water is wasteful.
- Shower to your favourite song. This will ensure yor shower is only 3 minutes long.

• Remember, the average household spends $300 a year on baths and showers, including water and heating costs. Take shorter showers. Limit showers to the time it takes to soap up, wash down, and rinse off.

• Install a water-saving shower rose or flow restrictor. Many showers put out 20 litres of water per minute, however, 10 litres is enough for a refreshing, cleansing shower.

• There is no need to run water down the plughole while brushing your teeth. Wet your brush and fill a glass for rinsing.

• Don't rinse your razor under a running tap. Fill the sink with a little warm water for rinsing.

In the laundry
Each washing machine or dishwasher load costs you $1.00 in water, energy, detergent and machine wear costs. So fill up before you wash!.
Save those suds - Washing machiens are major users of water in the home. As with dishwashers, try not to opeate them with small loads. If you are buying a new machine look for the "Star" rating. Consider buying a front loading machine. They generally use less water than top loaders.

In the Kitchen

• When washing dishes by hand, don't rinse them under a running tap. If you have two 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.
  

• Wait till you have a full load before using your dishwasher. Another load, another dollar!.

• Keep a bottle of drinking water in the refrigerator. This avoids wasting water while waiting for the water to cool down, and also gets rid of any chlorine taste.

• Install aerating taps. These are inexpensive and can reduce water flow by 50%.

• Garbage-disposal units use about 10 litres of water per use and send a lot of extra rubbish into sewers. This places an additional load on sewerage treatment works and impacts on our rivers and beaches. Put your organic food scraps in the compost bin for a better garden.

• When buying a new appliance that uses water, be sure it has a high water conservation rating.

INSTALL TAP AERATORS OR FLOW CONTROL VALVES

A tap aerator can save you about half the amount of water you would use with a standard tap. A flow control valve can reduce the flow of water through a tap to a more manageable level. Install water control devices:

• for the laundry and bathroom taps (12 litres per minute recommended)
• for the kitchen taps (9 litres per minute recommended)
• for handbasin taps (6 litres per minute recommended)

SAVE HOT WATER

Make sure your hot water system thermostat is not set too high. Adding cold water to cool too-hot water is wasteful. If you have a spa, ensure it is well insulated to keep water warm for longer.

CHECK FOR LEAKS

• Use your water meter to check for leaks. Turn all taps off before you go to bed one night and take a meter reading. Check the meter next morning before any water is used. If the meter reading has advanced, and no-one used any water dur ing the night, you have a leaking pipe, tap or toilet cistern. Locate the problem and repair it.

• A continuously dripping tap can waste 600 litres of water per day. Turn taps off properly and check washers for wear.

• A continuously running toilet can waste more than 200 kilolitres of water per year. To check for leaks, put a little food colouring in the tank. If, without flushing, the colouring begins to appear in the bowl, the cistern should be repaired immediately.

HOT WATER PIPES

Insulate hot water pipes. This saves energy and avoids wasting water while waiting for hot water to flow through.

RENOVATING

When renovating select products with a high water-efficient star rating. The National Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Scheme rtes the efficiency of products on a scale of zero to six stars. The more stars the more efficient the appliance so - "reach for the stars"

SUMMARY

There is no need for you to stop your essential uses of water because your savings would be small in comparison with the benefits you would lose. All you need to do is look at areas where you might be wasting water and use the tips in this sheet to help you use water efficiently.By using water wisely, you will:

• Reduce the need for new dams and supply systems
• Keep your water bills down
• Make large savings on your energy bills for water heating
• Reduce the risk of water restrictions
• Reduce your impact on the environment