Water is a liquid that is used every day in everyday life. Water can be liquid, solid or gaseous and serves very different purposes. The majority of drinking water used in the home is used for cleaning, personal hygiene and toilet flushing. It is used, for example, when showering, cooking, drinking, doing laundry or cleaning. Only small proportions are used by people for drinking and food preparation. In Germany, the daily per capita consumption of drinking water (in 2019) is around 125 liters of water. Interesting: Almost 30 years ago, a resident in Germany used an average of around 147 liters of water per day. However, due to a global water shortage, water is a valuable resource worth protecting. Water-saving gadgets can help you save water in everyday life and use it more consciously.
Whether for brushing your teeth, showering, washing your hands or flushing the toilet – water is often used in the wet room. This makes it easy to save water in the bathroom.
Conventional shower heads use an average of twelve to 15 liters per minute. So if you shower for ten minutes, you will use around 150 liters of water. A water-saving shower head should help. You screw the shower head onto your shower hose as usual. The trick is that the shower head lets less water through, but still keeps the water pressure constant. This is achieved, for example, with this water-saving shower head by adding air to the water, creating water bubbles filled with oxygen.
This trick is simple but effective: Do you sometimes leave the water running absentmindedly while brushing your teeth or soaping your hands? A comprehensible action is the most convenient one. In fact, by turning off the water supply while brushing or soaping, you can save water quickly and easily.
A water stopper helps to implement tip 2 effectively, because a water stop shuts off the water supply with one click. This is particularly practical for those who have a two-handle faucet installed on the sink or shower. The gadget is therefore suitable for showers and sinks. While soaping, you can temporarily slow down the water and effectively save water. A practical side effect: the set temperature, which has to be set individually with a two-handle faucet, remains the same thanks to the water stop.
Cooking, doing the dishes or washing your hands – water is also needed regularly in the kitchen. It’s worth taking a closer look at kitchen rituals to save water.
The term aerator means a flow regulator that is placed on the tap and, with its poorly permeable membrane, ensures that the flow rate is reduced. Installation is quick and the effect on water consumption is great.
Two-handle faucets consist of a regulator for hot and one for cold water. The adjustment requires that some water must first flow through until the temperature is comfortable and suitable. A single-lever mixer replaces two controls with one and the ideal temperature can be regulated more quickly. The result: water is saved and handling will be easier in the future.
In the garden you get help from nature when it comes to saving water. Natural rainwater is ideal for watering the garden. Since rainwater also has a lower pH value than more calcareous tap water, even your plants benefit from it.
Collecting water in a rain barrel is particularly suitable for irrigation in summer. Such a barrel should hold between 200 and 300 liters of water, but there are also larger models with 500 liters or even more. However, the water shouldn’t sit unused in the barrel for weeks and get dirty, so you can estimate the amount you need before buying a rain barrel and choose the right size for your purposes. Rain barrels with a spout are also practical, so you can easily and specifically get water out of the barrel.
Even more rainwater can be collected in a cistern. However, if you want to use an underground tank as a water reservoir, you have to dig deep and dig deeper into your wallet. This can be worthwhile because underground tanks hold up to 4,000 liters of rainwater and are connected directly to the rainwater downpipe. The water is pumped out via an electric submersible pump.
Sources: Environment Federal Office, Statista, BMU
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