Water Metering By Patrick Mullins A humorous and sometimes useful look at ways to cut water usage and save money. Irish Water will allow each household 30,000 free litres of water per year, no matter how many people live in the house. Thats 82 litres per day, per household. This was described by minister Phil Hogan as “a generous allowance.” It equals seven toilet flushes per day, or one bath, or two or three 5 minute showers, depending on the type of shower you use. Any other water you use will cost you....dearly To beat the system..... You must re-train yourself to be very conscious of the ways you use water. When youre washing your teeth...dont leave the tap running. Have a glass of water handy and rinse with that. When youre shaving... dont leave the tap running. Run 2 litres of water into the sink and shave with that. Dont run the dishwasher when its only half full. The water usage for a full wash will be the same as for a small wash. Dont be tempted to throw knickers and socks in with the dishes. It would probably work but you dont want to do that. The same applies to the washing machine Fill a three litre milk carton with water and place this in your toilet cistern. Your average cistern will still flush adequately but you will save three litres on each flush. If that doesnt work too well, reduce it to a two litre milk or fizzy drink bottle. Adjust size as required. Remember, in this case, size matters. Just ensure that whatever you use doesnt interfere with the flushing mechanism. If you have a garden, a water butt is essential, for watering flowers, grass, car and pet washing etc. If you are really focused on saving, use water from a water butt to flush a downstairs toilet. In the 60s people had one or two baths per week, no showers and they didnt have B.O. Well, most of them didnt anyway. The body adjusts. People used wash stands. a type of sideboard with an ornate ceramic bowl and large jug for washing. But if you are concerned about body odours, use rubbing alchohol. It kills bacteria smells. When showering and hair washing, five minutes is enough time to get completely clean. Cut your hair. The less hair, the less water it takes to wash it. When you run a bath, fill it to a lower level than usual and then do a few crocodile death rolls. Itll get you clean. In summer, think twice before filling paddling pools for kids unless you have a big butt (water) For most ordinary people, filling or even owning a swiming pool is out of the question so, if you do own one, flog it on Adverts.ie or DoneDeal. Good luck with that. Garden water features are ok because they continuosly recycle the same water. A constant tap drip can lose enough water in one day to fill a bath so getting that fixed is an absolute priority. Some people may keep the plug in the bath and use the bath water to flush the toilet during the day. Thats enough water for 6 extra flushes A coin box on the bathroom door to gain access to the bathroom is a practical, if extreme, way of limiting the use of the toilet. Im sure that with practice we could all learn to sit quietly with legs crossed for many hours, thereby cutting down the number of visits to the loo and monthly proceeds from the coin box will help to pay the water bill. Heres the really depressing bit. The government expects to raise €500 million next year from this water metering. If everybody follows my suggestions they will fall far short of their target. So, the following year they will increase the water charges to make up the shortfall. Each year we will pay more and more in a never ending spiral of increasing burden on already stressed taxpayers. You just cant win, can you ? As Nelson Muntz of the Simpsons would say “Smell you later” Lol
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 00:36:45 +0000
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