Selfsufficientish.com

When I take a shower, it takes about half a minute before the water is warm. To avoid the cold water being lost I put a bucket in my shower to catch that water. Afterwards we can use it to clean, do the dishes or flush the toilet. Eacht time I shower I can save about 5 liters of water that way.

Good plan Jove, ours takes time to heat up too and with three of us in the house a lot of water gets wasted. - I think our bathroom is about to get a bucket as an added feature. Cheers for that.

Still amazes me the simple tips, that you hear and wonder why on earth you did not think of it yourself.

And turn the tap off when you brush your teeth!
It astounds me the amount of people who keep it running while they're brushing - you only need the tap when you rinse!
I'm a watchin' you!!

ooh and put a brick in the cistern of your loo - saves 50% of water each time you flush.

http://waterwise.fortune-cookie.com/free-stuff/ offers some freebies - lots of information about saving water. The freebies are available to people outside the Thames water area too - definitely worth a look. I got a little plastic bag filled with crystals that you stick in the cistern to reduce the water usage.

At an eco fair in Herefordshire I got a plastic water hippo to put into the loo -

Oh... and don't forget that little rhyme about toilet flushing....

If it's yellow let it mellow
If it's brown, flush it down!!

I've got one of those little bags filled with crystals too - got it free from Severn Trent Water. Although, since it was necessary to bend the arm (to stop the cistern overfilling & leaking) I've had to remove the bag so I get enough water to flush properly.

I'm planning on a (small) water butt, cheap & also from Severn Trent, to attach to my shed. Can't put one on the house down-pipe as the bath & basin waste joins it high up. I'll certainly be investing in some buckets (including one in the shower), as the downside of container gardening is the amount of water it needs.

Last summer I kept the watering can in the kitchen & topped it up when filling the bowl for washing up etc. I'm not on a meter or anything but try to do my bit for the environment by saving water where-ever possible.

We had a brick in the old single flush cistern for many years, but recently (about 5 years ago) replaced it with a new and slightly smaller dual flush model. It works fine!

Nev

hedgewitch wrote:ooh and put a brick in the cistern of your loo - saves 50% of water each time you flush.

I've read somewhere that it's not a good idea to use a brick for that - the brick will eventually crumble and stuff up the pipes. Fill a large (2 or 3l) plastic bottle with water, screw top back on, and use that instead!

I can't understand why dual flush cisterns aren't standard by now. They are still really difficult to find up here in Scotland, but I think they are more common down south.

I usually use the first bit of water in the shower for a quick clean of the bath - ok, it would make more sense to clean the bath after I've used it, but since I'm the only one here it doesn't matter so much!

What about diverting the grey water straight into a water butt outside, and then into the garden? As long as you keep to a relatively eco-brand of washing stuff, you channel the "wasted water" straight to where it's needed... without using a hose pipe!

I wish I could do that but with French houses all the pipes are inside the walls and not on the outside like UK houses!

Batfink wrote:What about diverting the grey water straight into a water butt outside, and then into the garden? As long as you keep to a relatively eco-brand of washing stuff, you channel the "wasted water" straight to where it's needed... without using a hose pipe!

I reuse grey water from the washing machine. The machine's drain pipe comes out through the wall to a drain cover just outside the kitchen window. I cut the plastic pipe just beyond a bend and put a dustbin under it. I discard the first outflow with the majority of the detergent and dirt by replacing the original pipe (push fit using tapered neck of plastic squash bottle) and then let the rinse water fill the dustbin. I keep it separate from rainwater so I can see if there's any difference on my crops.

It's surprising how much water a wash takes; the dustbin wouldn't hold all that's used if I wasn't discarding some, though my newer (freecycle) machine may be different.

I want to collect much more water from the roof and use it both for crops and for toilet flushing by pumping water up to a separate tank in the roof. I'm planning to build a ferrocement (cement and wire mesh) water tank as used in developing countries to store a decent amount.

I've got the book, I just need to get round to actually doing it.
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A small and simple one is to keep a bottle of water in the fridge. Water isn't wasted running the tap to get a nice cold drink. Every little helps!

Good idea Andy - welcome to the site btw...

I've just collected 6 oil drums to convert into water butts... going to be great fun. I want to paint them up to look like soup cans a la andy warhol but DP isn't too keen... he wants to paint them green to match his landrover so we can use the same paint for both.

It seemed somewhat appropriate that the heavens opened on the way home with these drums on top of the landy - thunder and lightening and flash floods for a good part of our journey home.

I use grey water for my plants, which are on the patio table. When I water them some of the water comes out of the bottom of the pots and then runs off the table via the umbrella hole. Underneath is a large bucket. So I can then recycle the recycled water.

Davina

I have slatted shelves, one above the other, so when I water my plants the water runs thru the pots, thru the shelves into the pots below, thru them and the next shelf into a pot with tomato plants at the bottom. Its like a waterfall!