The kitchen is a major consumer of water in the home
Kitchen tips
Here we use around 10% of total household water consumption for cooking, cleaning, washing or drinking.
- Wash your vegetables in a container or under running water.
- Remove food scraps by scraping into compost or a bin.
- To avoid wasting drinking water from a running tap, collect it in a bottle or jug and store it in the fridge until it is cool enough to drink.
- Garbage-disposal units use about 6 litres of water per day. Put suitable food scraps into a composter or worm farm rather than down the kitchen sink.
- When you clean your fish tank, use the ‘old’ nitrogen and phosphorous-rich water on your plants.
- When washing dishes by hand, use washing-up liquid sparingly.
Using the dishwasher
- The dishwasher is the highest consumer of water in the kitchen. Installing a water efficient model will save you not only water but also money. Before purchasing a new dishwasher, check the appliance for a WELS (National Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards scheme) label. The WELS scheme labels products for water efficiency – the more stars, the more water efficient the product.
- Only use the dishwasher when you have a full load.
- Use the rinse-hold setting on the dishwasher, if it has one, rather than rinsing dishes under the tap.
Waiting for the hot water to come through?
- Catch running water whilst waiting for it to warm up. Use it to water plants, rinse dishes, or wash fruit and vegetables.
- Insulate hot water pipes. This avoids wasting water while waiting for hot water to flow through and saves energy.
- Make sure your hot water system thermostat is not set too high. Adding cold water to cool very hot water is wasteful.
- New hot water systems allow you to specify the temperature without adding cold water.
- Install a plumbing device that allows the cold water to be recirculated until it warms up.
