Easy Tips on How to Save Water in Daily Life

“Whenever you see an open tap, Close it instantly.” #SaveWater – BestROWaterPurifier.in

Read and try to implement the following tips. Don’t forget to share with your friends and family and do your bit to help in saving the water!

70% of the earth is covered with water, but only 1% is easily accessible to us. Water is such a scarce resource and with more and more news of areas fighting with water shortages and droughts, saving water and using it more efficiently has become an absolute necessity.

Even if your home has an abundant supply of water, saving water and reducing wastage becomes a common responsibility towards our future generations. Reducing your water usage will also reduce electricity used directly or indirectly.

With water being such a vital natural resource for life, saving water and reducing the wastage of water is a great way to take action. All of us can adopt and implement some very easy ways to start this fight for conserving water for our future generations. We have listed some of the most basic and most effective tips on how you can save water in your daily life.

Whether you’re washing your clothes, taking a bath, washing the dishes, shaving, brushing your teeth, or gardening, there are several simple water conservation methods that will help you save water.

Table of Contents

How to Save Water in the Bathroom

1. Fix your Leaks

Known or unknown leaks in taps, pipes, and toilets can result in up to 11,000 Liters of water being wasted. You should always check all your bath fittings for any leakage and get the leaks repaired as soon as possible. This will not only save wastage of water but will also avoid any damage to your walls and fittings.

Use our water wastage calculator to get a fair idea of the amount of water your leaky faucet or tap may be wasting.

2. Turn Off the Tap While Brushing your Teeth or Shaving

An average tap or faucet throws approximately 10 liters of water every minute. So don’t leave the tap open while brushing or shaving. Turn off the faucet after you wet your brush, and turn it on when it’s time to rinse.

3. Turn Off the Tap While Washing your Hands

Do not leave the tap running while you’re scrubbing your hands. Wet your hands and turn off the tap, turn on the tap when you need to rinse.

4. Flush with Less

Older flush use 3 to 4 times more water as compared to the new ones. Convert your old flush toilet to a dual-flush toilet. A dual-flush toilet allows you to use less water to flush liquid waste and more water to flush solid waste simply by pressing the correct button.

5. Install a Tap/Faucet Aerator

Adding an aerator to your tap/faucet will add air to the flow of water, giving you a more consistent stream while also using less water overall. Tap/Faucet aerators are very easy to install, inexpensive and highly effective. Taps/faucets with aerators can save up to 80% of water as compared to the tap/faucets without aerators. Aerators should also be used in taps/faucets in bathrooms.

6. Bath for Shorter Duration

Bathing or taking a shower for longer durations requires more water, try to reduce the duration of the shower. This will not only save the much-needed water but will also give you more time to enjoy other things.

How to Save Water in the Kitchen

1. Don’t Use RO Water Purifiers (if RO purification is not necessary)

Do you know that an average RO purifier wastes approximately 3 litres of water for every 1 litre of purified water?

That means only 25% of water is purified and 75% of water comes out as waste.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has specified the maximum TDS limit for safe drinking water as 500 mg/L. Therefore, you should avoid using an RO water purifier if the TDS level of the input water is below 500 mg/L and the water does not contain any harmful heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury.

In such a case, using a UV+UF water purifier would be more appropriate.

Save water by not using RO water purifiers if RO purification is not necessary. Use water purifiers using alternate purification technologies like Gravity Based water purifiers, UV water purifiers, UV+UF water purifiers, etc.

2. Using an RO Purifier? Reduce & Re-use the RO Waste Water

As detailed in the above point, you should only use an RO water purifier if it is really necessary. If the quality of the input water is such that it is necessary to use an RO water purifier at your home. then you should try to reduce and re-use the RO waste water.

• Reduce: While most RO water purifiers only recover around 20-25% water as purified drinking water, some purifier brands have tried to address this concern by improving the recovery rate by up to 50%. Always check the recovery rate of the purifier while buying a new RO purifier for your home or office.You can also reduce the amount of waste water that your existing RO purifier produces by periodically changing the filters and RO membrane. The quantity of waste water increases when filters and RO membrane gets choked. A choked RO membrane will have a very poor recovery rate. If you notice your purifier is taking more than usual time to fill the storage tank or there is an increase in the amount of waste water, then it is time for you to get the filters and membrane checked.
• Re-use: Don’t let the RO waste water flow down the drain. Store the waste water in some tank or bucket and re-use this waste water for other household works like washing utensils, floor mopping, washing your car, watering your plants, etc. Please visit the following link to understand how you can re-use the RO waste water.

3. Washing Dishes by Hand?

When you are washing dishes by hand don’t leave the water running for rinsing. Fill up your sink with water or use a large pan or bucket for rinsing the dishes. This will minimize the water wastage by not letting the water run the whole time when you’re scrubbing the dishes.

4. Washing Dishes by Dishwasher?

Always remember to load your dishwasher to its full capacity. This will avoid multiple running cycles of the dishwasher and will save a lot of water.

5. Defrost Frozen Food in the Refrigerator

If you are cooking frozen foods or vegetable then instead of soaking it in the water you can simply use the defrost option of your refrigerator. But for doing this, you will have to plan a little ahead as defrosting with refrigerator will take some time.

6. Clean Fruits & Vegetables in a Pan

When you need to clean fruits and vegetables with water, try filling up a pan of water to wash them instead of letting the faucet run. By doing this, not only you will use less water but you can also use the water from the Pan for watering your plants.

How to Save Water While Washing Clothes

1. Replace your Old In-efficient Washing Machine with an Efficient Washing Machine

– Old-style top-loading washing machines use 150 to 170 Liters of water per wash. You can reduce this by up to 50% by using high-efficiency top-loading washing machines. Front-loading washing machines use much less water and electricity than top-loading washing machines.

2. Don’t Run Empty Washing Machines

Don’t just run your washing machine for a couple of socks or 1 or 2 shirts, make sure you’re washing a full load of laundry. When washing your clothes, use the economy mode – this will save you both water and electricity.

3. Wash Less Often

Several clothes like sweaters, jeans, towels, track pants and jackets do not require washing every time you wear them. This will not only save water but will save wear and tear on your clothes.

How to Save Water Outdoors

1. Install a Water Meter

A water meter will not only help in measuring the amount of water you use but it is the most important tool in your fight against reducing the wastage of water. Because without measuring the water usage you may feel that you are not wasting the water. But once you install a water meter you might be very surprised to find out how much water you are actually using. Meters can also be very helpful in detecting leaks – take the meter reading, wait for an hour or two without running any water, and read it again. If there is any difference in the meter reading then you know something is leaking.

2. Stop the Overflow

Almost all homes and commercial premises in India and overhead tanks for water storage. And all of us have seen ours or our neighbours’ water tank overflowing at some point in time. We can easily stop the overflow from our water tanks and save hundreds of liters of water daily by simply using one of the below solutions:

• Install a Float Valve: A float valve is a very simple, inexpensive but highly effective equipment for stopping the tank overflow. It automatically stops the incoming flow of water in the tank when the water in the tank reaches the maximum level. This solution is best suited for water tanks which are filled using normal incoming water pressure. Always remember, you should never install a standard float valve if you are using a water motor/pump to fill the water tank.
• Water Tank Overflow Alarm: A standard float valve is a piece of great equipment for stopping the tank overflow if you are not using a water pump for filling the water tank. But what about the people who are using a water pump? Water Tank Overflow Alarm is a small electronic device that alerts you every time water overflows from your tank. It does not stop the flow of water, it simply raises an alarm so you can shut off the water pump. This simple device not only saves water but also saves electricity because your water pump is not left running even after your water tank is full.
• Automatic Water Level Controller: As the name suggests, Automatic Water Level Controller is an electronic device which controls or manages the water level in your water tank. It consists of an electronic controller and water level sensors. The electronic controller is connected to the electric supply, water motor/pump, and the sensors. This device automatically switches on/off your water motor/pump when the water level in the tank reaches the minimum/maximum level.

All of these solutions not only help you in saving water and electricity but are also very helpful in preventing damage to roofs and walls from overflowing water.

3. Use Smart Watering Tactics on your Garden and Plants

You can keep your home garden and plants green and healthy without wasting too much water. You should always water areas that truly need it. The best time of day to do your watering is in the morning or evening so that the water doesn’t immediately evaporate. Do not water on a rainy day. Water deeply but less often. This will encourage plants to grow deeper roots, and plants with deeper roots require water less frequently. If you are watering using a pipe, connect a hose or spray gun at the end. Water saving hoses and spray guns cover more area and use comparatively lesser water.

4. Don’t Plant Grass If you Have Water Shortage

If you live in an area with poor water supply or infrequent rain then the best advice anyone can give you is to not plant grass because grass requires a considerable amount of water. You can instead grow plants that don’t need as much water.