FAQ

1. Don’t rinse dishes or defrost food under a running tap, plug the sink instead.
2. Install flow restrictors in your taps as these deliver a preset water flow.
3. Reduce the amount of washing up liquid you use.
4. Don’t put too much water in the pot when boiling food and put a lid on the pot.
5. Use a washing up bowl and reuse it for watering plants.
6. Fill up your dishwasher before switching it on – an average dishwasher uses 35 litres per wash.
7. Install a sink swish to transform a straight stream into a spray – this controls water flow, reducing water wastage.
8. Install flood stop safety valves to shut off water flow if your dishwasher hose breaks or slips off – a cheap way to stop you house getting flooded and to prevent water wastage.
9. Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth – a running tap uses about 16 litres of water. People who regularly keep the tap running while cleaning their teeth may use up to 14,000 litres per year in the process.
10. Rinse your razor in a plugged sink and turn off the tap when shaving – you can save more than 3500 litres per year.
11. Shorten your shower time – you can save between seven and 30 litres of water if you reduce your shower time by an average of two to three minutes.
12. Catch water that’s usually wasted while you wait for shower water to reach the right temperature – keep a bucket in the shower to collect it and use this water for your pot plants and garden.
13. Don’t fill your bathtub – only use as much water as you need.
14. Look for washing machines with the best water and energy rating – this can cut your water usage by 35%.
15. Choose front loading washing machines – they use 50 to 80 litres of water per cycle, this is about half the water top loaders use.
16. Only put on a full load of clothes washing and match the water level to the size of the load.
17. Divert water from your laundry, or grey water, to your garden.
18. Check for worn taps. A dripping tap might not appear to be wasting much water, but it quickly adds up.
19. Turn off your water heater when going away on holidays.
20. If building a new house, plan so that bathrooms and kitchen are together and locate the hot water system as close as possible to the hot water outlets. The shorter the pipe lengths the more energy you will save trying to heat the hot water.
21. Insulate the hot water pipes to reduce heat loss.
22. It is commonplace that household members trying to prepare themselves for the day find pressure on access to the bathroom. This becomes a determinant of the length of showers family members take. This is made more pressing if the toilet and shower are in the same room. However dwellings with more than one bathroom while able to reduce this pressure have the consequence that household members’ showers are likely to be longer.
23. The length of showers is also affected by the availability of hot water.
24. Shower water consumption increases as children reach teenage years.
25. A household with two members are not likely to use twice as much water as those with one member for cooking or clothes washing and dishwashing. Two person households consume on average only 67% more water than a single house.
26. More than a quarter of households in high-rise flats wash their dishes under running water whereas only half that proportion of those in separate houses does.
27. 1. An Off peak electric hot water storage systems cost approx $1000 to install, have an annual cost of approx $260 and produce 3700kg of greenhouse emissions per year. These systems are not usually installed into a high rise apartment. For apartments on general use electric tariff (Not Off peak) the running costs will be at least double this amount.
    2. A Five-star continuous flow natural gas systems costs approx $1200 to install, have an annual cost of approx $220 and produce 820kg of greenhouse emissions per year.
    3. A Five-star continuous flow LPG systems cost $1200 to install, have an annual cost of approx $350 and produce 930kg of greenhouse emissions per year.

What is WELS?

WELS is Australia’s new water efficiency labeling scheme, which allows consumers to compare the water efficiency of different products. By buying more water-efficient products you can save money on water and electricity bills and help the environment.
The rating system is similar to the energy rating labeling, with six stars. The more stars the better. As well as a star rating the labels also show a water consumption or water flow figure.

Showers

The WELS scheme applies to showers intended solely for personal bathing as specified in ‘AS/NZS 3662:2005-Performance of showers for bathing’. Showers are likely to generate about 25 per cent of the anticipated water savings under the WELS scheme because:

• A standard showerhead uses about 15 to 25 litres of water per minute. A water efficient showerhead uses as little as 6 or 7 litres per minute.
• A regular showerhead uses at least 120 litres of water per eight-minute shower. A water efficient model uses less than 72 litres or 40 per cent less water.
• Installing a water-efficient showerhead saves about 14,500 litres per household each year.
• Gas hot water costs for a standard showerhead are around $1,500 over ten years. Gas hot water costs for a water-efficient showerhead are only $790 over ten years or a 47 per cent reduction.

Clothes Washing Machines

About 50% of the anticipated water savings under the WELS scheme will come from clothes washing machines because:
A water efficient washing machine uses one-third the water of an older model.
By 2016 WELS washing machines could save about 25,600 megalitres of water per year – enough to fill 12,500 Olympic swimming pools every 12 months.

Dishwashers

By 2016 WELS could save nearly 1200 megalitres per year in national dishwasher water consumption – enough to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools each year.

The most efficient dishwashers use half the water of average models.