Monday 28 March 2022: Saving water

 Monday 28 March 2022: Saving water

This week we’re going to be talking about ways in which Affinity Water can help and encourage its' customers to reduce the amount of water they use.  

Firstly, how much water do you think you use compared to the average?

A lot less than average.

Using a spreadsheet, I record the water meter reading every day. I know our daily water use, 7-day rolling average water use, and long-term average water use. Whilst our water use fluctuates from day to day, the 7-day rolling average and the long term average are, per person, about one-third of reported per person average water use.

Affinity Water could send households an alert to tell people that they have been using more water than normal. This higher water usage would need some investigation but it could be because of certain and unusual behaviours e.g. using a hosepipe or pressure washer for an extended period or because of a leak at the property. How interested would you be in receiving a higher water usage alert like this?

Highly interested.

As you are interested in receiving this high water usage alert please tell us what information you would expect Affinity Water to be able to provide and what action you think you would take as a result.

My average daily water use over a specific period. The average daily water use over the same period of other people in my postcode area. An invitation for me to consider: a) what water usage might have triggered the high water usage alert. b) what I might do to use less water and yet still achieve my goals

Is your household on a water meter, i.e. do you pay for the amount of water you use or do you pay for a fixed amount?

A water meter.

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about your water meter? 

"I know where my water meter is."

Yes, I do now, but did not for many years. No-one told me or showed me. The inspection cover that read "Water Meter" on it had a stop tap, not a water meter underneath it.

"My water meter is somewhere that it is easy for me to access."

No, it is about 60 cm below the footway beside the road beyond my garden.

"I would be happy to take weekly or monthly readings."

I take readings every day.

Affinity Water offer Home Water Efficiency Checks to their customers which provide a way for them to assess how efficient households are with their water usage and provide free water saving devices (such as tap inserts, shower heads and ‘save a flush’) and give tips on how to change behaviours.  How interested would you be in having a free Home Water Efficiency Check?

My response to this is disingenuous. On the one hand I feel highly motivated to save water, and would willingly listen to further ideas about how I might do so. Yet, I am already saving so much water that it is hard to imagine that there are significant ways in which I might save more by adopting gimmicks. Specifically, the amount of water that we save from going to waste is huge compared with the limited amounts such gimmicks would save. As I write below, the ways in which I could save significant additional amounts of water involve financial investment, not gimmicks.  

These Home Water Efficiency Checks can be done in person where an expert visits your home which means that they can install any water saving devices and check for leaks.  Or they can be done virtually via a video call which means that no-one needs to visit your home and any water saving devices would be sent out to you. Which of these options would you prefer?

I am all for reducing unnecessary travel: video-conferencing should always be the first option.

How appealing are each of these different elements of the Home Water Efficiency checks?

A leak check on your property?

A leak check would appeal if it involves identifying leaks that are invisible, e.g. underground or under the floor. On the other hand, if it simply involves identifying a dripping tap then I can do that for myself.  

Provision of free water saving devices?

I have one sitting on the desk beside me. It is a very small hour-glass containing blue sand. I am supposed to use it in the shower in order to limit my shower to 4 minutes. I can barely shampoo and rinse my hair in 4 minutes, never mind use conditioner, or actually wash my body. I do not have anywhere near enough showers to be able to have 'a quick rinse shower'. The fact that I limit my showers to two or three times per week, rather than the daily shower that I used to have when I was in full-time employment, is of some significance, as is the fact that I use the shower on it lowest-powered setting.

A second device involves a water-sensitive paper disk to stick on the inside of the toilet bowl to establish whether the cistern is leaking into the toilet. Mostly, I use a bucket of used-water to flush the toilet, and almost never press the flush on the cistern: the cistern is not leaking.

A third device looks like a miniature tea-pot cosy. It is intended to fit over an outside tap with a view to preventing frost from damaging the tap. For the device to be effective, I need to lag the pipe that supplies the tap. There is a second outside tap that requires replacing before a second miniature tea-pot cosy would make sense, as well as lagging the pipe that supplies it.  

The toilet cisterns are already dual-flush, so a device to limit the volume of water flushed would be superfluous.  

Having water saving devices fitted in your house?

What would make a valuable (although not significant) difference to our water use would be to replace most of the water taps with much better quality taps that are sensitively responsive to how much water flow is required.  

Tips and advice on how to change your behaviour?

When I was in my last job, I was required to attend an in-house coaching course. A significant part of the course involve teaching the participants to listen actively. I had been teaching this material for more than 20 years. Another in-house course I was required to attend was on mental health awareness. Whilst it was clear to me that many of my colleagues were learning new things, I had been teaching this material for more than 20 years, and found what we were being presented with highly simplistic, which reflected the poor level of understanding of the trainer. I could easily have taught the course much better, and indeed had written much more sophisticated material for delivery to staff across the organisation. 

I do not require tips on changing my behaviour, such as turning off the tap when I am brushing my teeth. What I require is someone to work with me in detail to plan and put into action the construction of a water reservoir so that I can collect / save thousands of litres of water.

Please briefly tell us a bit more about what you think about the idea of having a Home Water Efficiency Check.

I have no wish to appear arrogant (which means that I am certain to appear so), but if my per person household water use is already only 35% of average per person water use, then I believe that I am doing well. Every day involves monitoring water use, storing and re-using already-used water, and thinking about ways to use water better. I am not saying that I could learn nothing, but I suspect that the water-saving activities in which we currently engage are considerably in advance of the kinds of suggestions I have read to-date. It is off-topic, but the kind of advance in water-saving that I need to make is much, much more water storage, such as a large pond/small reservoir. Preferably, this would be combined with a ground-source heat pump so that I can reduce my use of fossil fuels, and a haven for aquatic wildlife. Such a scheme would be using water-saving as a springboard to greater protection of the environment.

Affinity Water are working with others to push for the introduction of mandatory water efficiency labelling on various products that use water e.g. washing machines, jet washers, showers.  In general how interested would you be in finding out how water efficient the products you use are?  

Highly interested.

And if you were considering buying any of the following products how likely would you be to take the water efficiency rating of the product into consideration when making a decision about which product to buy?

Washing machine. Yes.

Dishwasher. Yes.

Tap fittings Yes. 

Showerhead. Yes, provided that the water flow was not completely strangled.

Toilet flush. Yes.

Jet washer. Yes, although I do not have one, and may never do so.

Thinking about the different things that Affinity Water could do to help and encourage households to use less water, which do you think it should prioritise.  Please place the following in rank order from ‘1’ to ‘5’ -  where ’1’ is this issue you think Affinity Water should give greatest priority to down to ‘5’ which should be given the lowest priority. 

1. Increase water metering for all households

2. Encourage customers to read their water meter frequently.

3. Encouraging customers to take up the offer of high water usage alerts.

4. Lobby for mandatory water efficiency labelling on products

5. Offering free Home Water Efficiency Checks

Please briefly explain your reasoning for which areas you think Affinity Water should prioritise.

Without water meters, customers can make no serious long-term attempt to reduce their water use. There has first to be a metric, and only then can the effectiveness of personal efforts to reduce water use be measured. Without a water meter, saving water is just another fashionable thing to do for a while until the fashion moves on.