Water again.

Biscuitmuncher, that’s a similar problem to one faced by DD. DGS1 dances-all day, different classes, rehearsals and performances.
Young (or older) men doing vigorous activities sweat! He showers frequently, fortunately for DD’s bills that’s often at the studio but he needs multiple outfits, which need washing and drying.

It’s absolutely heaving it down again here.

Ziplock my husband and son have dirty manual jobs. And I've young daughters who are always in the bath!

I can only assume, biscuitmuncher that for your washing machine to be on 3x per day you either have the care of very young children requiring lots of clean clothes, towels, etc or are caring for someone who is Ill and you have to wash bedding and towels 3x daily? Or, do you run a B&B?

We're lucky as we have our own water supply, a very deep well with pump which fills a big tank as needed then straight into the house. We also have a large waterbutt catching rainwater
from the garage roof , just in case! We still don't waste water, ie not leaving taps on while washing hands, or cleaning teeth, (tbh I've never done that!) short flush for the loo and so on. Our main area of saving is electricity and in that we have made what savings we can. I hardly use the dishwasher anymore,but I'm not sure if that's a particular saving, washing machine on 30min wash twice a week, (I soak clothes overnight if necessary) or occasionally more if full, low energy light bulbs, hot water heater in utility room which does for the kitchen and bathroom, electric shower, no bath, no tumble drier, no central heating, TV on a time switch, wood burner for heating and some cooking, as ours has a ring and oven so I'm not sure we can do much else!

We had a ten year drought some years back so we had to put in our own water tanks to collect rainwater. We were not allowed to water the gardens from town water. We adjusted,of course, though the grass was uniformly brown. It costs a huge amount for water here- not so much the amount you use but the utility cost. At the moment, strangely enough, half the country is flooded and people are desperate with no homes to go to. I have never seen flooding like that before.

Water management is a mess created by the Tories when they privatized it, creating monopolies for their commercial friends. The water companies have done a poor job on rivers and sewage pollution. It should be nationalized without compensation. The companies have made bonanza profits over the years.

Water companies should try not pouring sewage into our sea and rivers.

maddyone

There was a month’s worth of rain last night. Just saying.

There wasn't here although we had some, I think.
It was a bit damp outside this morning.

maddyone

There was a month’s worth of rain last night. Just saying.

Over the last week, our shell-shape paddling pool which I left out to collect rainwater in case the plants needed it 🤣 and to rinse the patio because of the dog, has filled to over-flowing, despite rinsing water being taken out.

There was a month’s worth of rain last night. Just saying.

But a lot of new houses are flats on very cramped sites, and many new houses, especially in urban areas have gardens little bigger than a patio.

Mollygo, it's the sort of thing that should be compulsory for new houses in water-stressed areas. The footprint is small as it's mainly vertical - and would be a low cost addition.

Hetty58, thanks for that link. It looks a good idea especially with all the rain.
The only thing is, I’m not good at DIY, but if you’d like to do that for me I’d be delighted.

(especially as I get the rainwater from 3 neighbours, I think it would only top up in the summer.)

M0nica, I'm thinking it's quite an easy DIY to provide some (not all) rainwater input to the downstairs loo. I'd be storing it above ground level, though. I'd need an additional downpipe in the right place, a cement block platform (just in case) large wall water butt, pipe to cistern, filter and mains top up - something like this:
www.freeflush.co.uk/pages/gravity-fed-rainwater-harvesting-system-for-flushing-toilets

My main concern is already transport of water from the water butt to the toilet.
For the downstairs loo-possible, but upstairs?
Water is incredibly heavy and toting a bucket full upstairs and decanting it would be difficult for many posters-although toting half buckets several times would be a good way of keeping fit.

hetty I think we would all like to use rainwater for loos etc, but the big problem is where do we store it and how do we make sure we have enough to last a year?

It would take a very large hole in the garden filled by a very large tank to meet the need, and how many homes have such a garden?

Callistemon21

I saw this Casdon which was a report 3 weeks ago:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63396596

I think it’s improved since then because it doesn’t seem to have stopped raining, November has been the wettest I can ever remember in mid Wales. I’ll have a look at the charts for November when they are produced, my guess is our reservoirs will be even fuller by then - which is good news for Wales, Birmingham, Liverpool etc., but I know not much help to Eastern/southern England. We’re lucky not to need to rely on ground water, as we have lots of reservoirs.

mokryna

NotAGran55

According to Which? dishwashers are more water efficient than hand washing.

www.which.co.uk/news/article/which-research-reveals-how-little-water-dishwashers-use-compared-to-hand-washing-aUDng9Y2iK8E

Surely this depends on how you hand wash your dishes. A bowl for the soap wash and another bowl for the rinse. Not the running tap which seems to be the fashion with some.

Average washing up bowl is 8-10 litres, so two bowls 16-20 litres. Averge dishwasher use 12 litres.

And I could not get through a full dishwasher load in the sink without changing the water at least once.

I've just changed over to a metered bill and have become far more aware of using water wisely. It really annoys me that so much is lost, especially the vast amount of rain water going straight down the drain (once the water butt is full). So much of the treated, drinking quality supply is 'wasted' on toilet flushing etc. - when that rain water would do!

It is all very well saying the reservoirs are full, but, especially in the south of England, what is far more important is that ground water reserves are back to normal levels - and they are a long way from full. This why the hosepipe ban remains, as a reminder nad symbol, that there is more to water supply than simply reservoirs.

Granmarderby it’s a very good point about getting cold if you turn the shower off. Ours would then take time to warm up again if we turned it off.
We have a water meter now. The enormous difference between our previous bill pm and the new direct debit was nearly 75%. It’s not even as if we have a big house.

Mollygo I agree with trying not to waste water and have had a meter for years. ( Interestingly all the new social housing tenants - at least here, have a water meter)
With regard to showers though, surely it all depends how dirty you are are or (feel you are)
I personally don’t shower every day now, I don’t think it’s necessary, but when I do I make it a good one- sometimes I wash my hair as well and that can take at least ten minutes maybe twelve even!
For some I imagine, balance and mobility issues mean they cannot rush the process but also don’t want to get cold which happens if the shower is switched off between applying hair conditioner say or shaving mouses.
If being clean and having clean clothes/ bedding / linen is your creature comfort on an everyday basis and you’ve paid for the machine and the electricity/gas and the water then I see no need for these arbitrary “rules”.

13.11.23 no auto correct on numbers!