Bathroom

If you're a typical household, around 40% of all water used in your home is in the bathroom - and a lot of that is wasted!

Baths

Many people believe that baths waste water, but often they use less water than a shower. You can use bath water wisely by:

• only filling the tub with as much water as you need. Use less for children and pets.
• checking the temperature as you fill. Adding more water to at the end to change the temperature is wasteful.
• regularly checking your plug for leaks and replace if it's not giving a tight seal.
• using a bucket to pour used bath water onto the garden or to wash your car (but check that your soaps and detergents in the water won’t harm garden plants).

Before you buy a new washing machine check the manufacturer’s water efficiency labels. Australia’s Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards (WELS) scheme lets you compare the water efficiency of different products using a star rating system. By buying more water efficient products you can save money on water and electricity bills and help the environment.
 

Showers

Modern water efficient showerheads use no more than 9 litres of water each minute, while old style showerheads use up to 20 litres each minute. If you shower for six minutes, a water efficient showerhead can save up to 50 litres of water for each shower - that's 20,000 litres of water per person every year!

• Limit time spent in the shower to soap up, wash down, and rinse off. Shorter showers will also keep your energy costs down because you won't have to heat as much water. 
• Use a shower timer. Choose from a manual 4-minute egg timer or a more sophisticated electronic timer that either attaches to the shower wall or showerhead, or is wired into the wall during construction.
• Use a bucket to collect water while waiting for the shower to get hot.
• Shave your legs before taking a shower. Use running shower water to rinse off.
• Insulate hot water pipes. This avoids wasting water while waiting for hot water to flow through and saves energy.
• Consider an instantaneous water heater if your existing water heater is located far away from your bathroom. Talk to a plumber first to make sure it will work properly with your showerhead.
• Make sure your hot water system thermostat is not set too high. Adding cold water to reduce the temperature of very hot water is wasteful.

Discover ways to conserve water in other areas of your home: