People might think that just because they live in an apartment, they don’t need to be as cautious with their water usage. You might assume that costly water charges come with things like gardening, lawn care, and washing your car; however apartments can be just as expensive.
According to Sydney Water, the biggest cost in an apartment building when it comes to water are showers and toilets, as people often use these without a second thought. However, saving water is not only ideal for your wallet, but the environment too, and thankfully there are some easy ways to cut back on your usage.
Check Your Leaks
You might think that conserving water has more to do with limiting your water usage, but a leaking tap or toilet can be doing huge damage to your water bill without you even realising. Research has found that a leaking toilet can waste a whopping 250,000 litres per month which can add up significantly over the year.
To check for leaks yourself, perform a thorough inspection around your apartment of everywhere you can think which has a water supply. For those on Sydney’s North Shore and Northern Beaches, JEDI Plumbing offers a plumbing inspection service for those who want a more thorough and professional inspection, and peace of mind.
Be Cautious of Showers
Considering that every occupant of the apartment will often use the shower at least once a day, it’s no surprise that showers take up around 39% of the apartment’s water usage. As the biggest offender in the water wastage arena, we need to put our time and effort into making them more sustainable and less costly.
Begin by changing your shower heads over to something more water-efficient, such as a low flow head. Once you’ve fitted the house with the right kinds of taps, aim to take shorter showers. Three minutes is a fairly standard time frame to shower, particularly if you live with more than one person, and sticking to this goal will have a huge impact on your water usage.
Know Your Taps
A simple fitting of a tap aerator and flow controller can be added to your existing taps to reduce your water usage significantly. However, if you want to make a new purchase altogether you can choose the new 3-star models which use just half the water of a standard tap. These include lever, mixer, and quarter turn styles to suit all types of users.
When you leave the room, ensure you’ve tightly screwed the tap off so that there are no leaks. Although there are leaks which need to be fixed by a plumber, many times we carelessly leave these on ourselves.
The Importance of Water Usage in Your Apartment
So, why is it so important to watch water usage in an apartment? Just making these few small changes can save you over $100 a year on your water bill, and achieve a whole lot of other benefits for the environment too.
For every dollar you save on hot water usage, three times this amount is saved in energy costs, which has a hugely positive impact of reduced carbon emissions. Further savings can be made in apartments by reducing the amount of water pumped to the higher floors, meaning the entire complex can benefit from reduced strata bills and possibly cheaper rent when they take a shared approach to water usage reduction.
To maximise the savings in your apartment block, or take an individual look at how you can be more water wise, we invite you to contact our friendly team of professionals at JEDI Plumbing. Our dedicated staff are trained to search for leaks and other costly issues around the home, so contact us today on 0411 774 381 to see how we can assist you.