Having a Water Check

Affinity Water supply the water coming into the house here. Since we also have a well and a septic system we save quite a bit on not having to pay for the disposal of waster water and rarely need to pay to water the garden or clean the car, as we use well water for that. The well does run dry sometimes and then we don't wash the car and use a ate ring can for the garden !

We also have a water meter fitted which has just been upgraded to a more accurate digital one. As a result of this our bill has just been decreased from £14 a month to £9. I was very pleased about this as I think that MissShoestring has been taking a lot of showers ! In spite of all this water saving I still thought that we could probably do more and since we live in an area which is 'water stressed' I wanted to find out how to conserve more.

Affnity offer a service whereby a technician comes round to your house, checks all your taps and fits extra water saving devices if you need them. I had a visit on Friday from a charming young man who replaced the aerator on the kitchen tap, ordered a toilet bag online for me and left a shower aerator for MrShoestring to fit to the fixed shower which can't have a change of head. I was delighted to have the kitchen tap aerator replaced as it has been falling off the tap regularly for the last few months which was very annoying ! We had bought a few different ones to replace it but none of them fitted properly, so it was great to get the correct one for free !

The technician was also a mine of information about water saving. We had been contemplating using a pressure washer to clean the patio this week but I changed my mind when he told me that they use 1000 litres of water an hour ! He said that the water company would prefer it if I used a bucket and a scrubbing brush, so that is what I shall do ! He also said that the water levels in the area were lower than expected at this time of year and that if we wanted to avoid restrictions later in the Summer we should all do our bit to save water now.

I thought this free water check visit was really worthwhile and as a parting gift I received a free shower timer as well. I like a really long shower, it is one of my little luxuries, especially as the hot water is heated by solar power at this time of year. Now, I shall think of the water saving we should be doing and try very hard to have a 4 minute shower using the timer !