Meet our water-saving champion, Nick!

28th June 2022

Back in 2020, our Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Nick, got a very big shock. Learning that the average person in the South West uses 150 litres of water every day, Nick was more than confident that his household of two would be using a lot less. “We thought we were a pretty average household, and pretty careful with our water usage.” Imagine his surprise, then, when he found out, that he was using around 200 litres per day, “Turns out, we use quite a lot!”

Determined to change this, Nick launched his WATERTIGHT challenge, which was set up to encourage people to reduce their water consumption to 100 litres per day (as well as keep himself accountable). As part of his challenge, he recorded his progress in a series of video diary entries.

Nick learnt a lot and would now like to share his top tips for saving water.

1. Take regular meter readings

“Reading the meter was a big wakeup call and opened my eyes to my water consumption. It really brought home to me the scale of the challenge faced to reduce it down to 100 litres or less per day. The biggest thing I realised is that we don’t realise when we’re using it.”

2. Use your appliances wisely “We were really surprised by the amount of water our appliances like the washing machine and dishwasher use each time they’re put on. Sometimes, we were running these machines more than they needed to be. Using these appliances to their full capacity, rather than doing half-washes for instances, really helps cut back on your water saving.”

3. Use water butts in the garden

“We started the challenge in a particularly dry spell of the Summer 2020. It didn’t rain very much for at least 10 days. “Half way through, I was collecting shower water and kettle dregs and transferring it into the water butt – I was obsessed and it wasn’t sustainable,” Nick said, “So, in the end we had to choose between my challenge and the garden…and the decision was taken out of my hands by a greater authority (my wife).

“We were shocked that this ended up accounting for a quarter of our water usage for one day - 80 litres!” That’s just over half the amount of water an average person uses daily.

4. Be water-conscious in the bathroom

Showers “There are many different water-saving shower appliances out there – simple shower heads that aerate the water (which means air is added to keep the pressure up without using as much water), and more fancy ones which tell you how much water you’ve used and change colour when you’ve used certain amounts.

“But my biggest bit of advice when buying these products is check that the shower head will fit your shower. I ordered a really good one and then found out it wouldn’t fit!

“The most effective way to cut down your water use in the shower is by setting a timer. It really keeps you conscious of how long you’re spending continually using water.”

Toilets

“Another thing I discovered during my challenge (and which explained our very high numbers before and especially during it) was that all our toilet cistern kits were constantly dribbling. We were losing 50-100 litres a day just though this! Definitely get those leaky loos fixed!”

 

Nick's reflections

Nick said he was really surprised by how it seemed to him that the more the challenge went on, the more he discovered how his home’s water-using infrastructure wasn’t designed for water efficiency. “I was constantly battling with the ‘water system’ in our house. For instance, because the washing machine is old and rubbish, it doesn’t rinse properly…so, we press the extra rinse button which doubles or maybe even triples the water used for that wash!”

The challenge wasn’t easy but was it worth it?

Even though, because of COVID, he was unable to complete his challenge, what he learnt whilst doing it has stuck with him, and his water consumption has remained lower than it was before he started.

“Things like turning the water off while you soap up in the shower, and using the water from your half-drunk drinks to water the garden, are small changes but they’ve made a huge difference.”

We think Nick was incredible in sharing his journey and launching the WATERTIGHT challenge which anyone can join.