I am interested in MY water bill and the use of water in my house, not the theoretical average house that I have read about.
SHOULD WE CUT DOWN ON SHOWERS?
It is said that only about 12% of the average household water use is within the shower and this is the sort of figure that I think is meaningless. Some showers use 2 or 3 times as much water as others and the size of the household will also make a difference. I noted in my blogs last week that we could make considerable savings (hundreds of pounds per year) in our house by changing our shower head.
I can’t reduce the amount of water we use in the toilet so forget about that: then in our house I believe the shower is possibly our biggest single area of water use. Our shower uses 14 litres of water per minute and there are 5 people in this house. Many showers use 20 litres or more but around 15 is typical. Our new one is on order it is a 9 litre per minute device, you can get lower than this.
In the future, when we are ready to invest in more than just a shower head (at less than £50) there are loads of super efficient showering options that could save more water and energy.
In my recent blogs I suggested that in my house we might shower for about 7 hours per week. That was a guess. Sometimes I am in and out of it in minutes but an hour a day is a nice round figure to work with.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RUN A SHOWER?
If it flows for 30 minutes per day at a rate of about 14 litres per minute it will cost about £500 per year in water. I don’t know how much it will cost to heat the water.
It is said that approx 30% of water is flushed down the loo. If you have an old loo then it could be using 13 litres per go, one of those FREE water saving devices you put in the cistern will save you a fortune. Encouraging your children to be scared of the flush is also a money saving strategy, I sincerely believe that loud noise will awaken the monster that sleeps in the loft and it might come crashing through the ceiling to eat its favourite food: young children.
HOW MUCH WATER IS USED by a modern dual flush toilet? 4 or 6 litres per flush.
I’ve got no idea how many times we flush per day but it is the sort of thing that interests me so I might just start counting!
REDUCING LAUNDRY to CUT THE WATER BILL
If you are buying a new washing machine then spending an extra £100 or two to buy a more efficient model could quickly pay for itself. I based my previous calculations on doing 20 loads per week at 40 litres per load – I like round numbers. I have checked the details of my model, it is a more efficient larger capacity model (8kg) and about 40 litres per load is a good estimate. I have worked out that I can’t possibly be doing anything like 20 loads per week and for the sake of easy maths lets say it is about 10 loads per week. I don’t think I can make any savings here.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RUN MY WASHING MACHINE? In my house the cost of water for laundry I estimate will be a little less than £90 per year.
HOW MUCH WATER DOES MY DISHWASHER USE? About 10 litres per wash – for a modern model.
I already do most washing up in the dishwasher, it is always full and I will be doing as much as possible in there in the future.
Mrs Tara Plumbing 
What about leaving the tap running when you’re brushing your teeth… this wastes up to 6 litres of water a minute or 35,000 litres of water per family, per year!