Updated 7/10/22
The cost-of-living crisis being felt across Britain and globally. While the focus is rightly on gas and electric prices, the average UK household is also experiencing price increases in the cost of water. The average UK household now pays £419 per annum in water charges . Not only is water expensive, but it also has an environmental impact , and we have a collective responsibility to reduce consumption. Although the UK is unlikely to ever have a water shortage, global redistribution of water may become necessary in the future due to shortages already occurring in parts of the world. There are a number of calculators available to help you work out how much water you are using, this blog post will highlight one of the main ones we have come across and how to use it.
The need to work out how much water you use is highlighted in the blog post “ Why is saving water important?”
Save water, save money have developed aqKWa Savings Engine™ to help water companies help customers see how much water they are using.
The software is made to help you save water, energy and money. It takes approximately 3 minutes to use.
What do you need to do?
Visit https://www.aqkwa.co.uk/en/ and enter your postcode.
First of all, it asks you details of your home such as how many showers, baths and toilets do you have? Then it asks you about your car, clothing and dish washing habits before moving onto the water you use in the garden. To work out the household usage you of course need to tell the calculator how many people live in your home and what type of building it is.
It asks you how much you spend on water, but don’t worry if you don’t actually know this, there is the option to say so. If you are on a meter it will work out how much money you could save by implementing water conservation methods. Your main source of energy to heat the water is next.
Once this information has been entered it delves a little deeper into the specifics so that the most accurate calculations can be made.
At the end of the data inputting you need to enter your email address so that it saves your results, as you can do the calculations in a few months to see how they compare once you have put waster saving measures in place.
These were my results below
These are just estimated but give you an idea of how much my house is using.
These are some simple ways it recommends to reduce my water consumption. If I was on a meter the monetary savings would have been included, but because I’m not as yet, the savings are based on the energy used to heat the water.
It then gives you comparisons to see how you are shaping up against other households.
Looking at the above figures there certainly looks to be ways my household of 5 people (2 adults 3 children) can be cutting down our water usage. We have already started implementing the 32 tips on how to save water such as making sure the tap is turned off when lathering the hands with soap but it shows we need to be making sure this continues.
I have also recently got my free water saving devices from Yorkshire Water, so these will help with things like water used per flush of the toilet, shower time and flow rate of the taps.
Let us know how you got on with the aqKWa Savings Engine™ calculator in the comments below
Other water saving calculators you could try
Thames Water – Water saving calculator
Essex and Suffolk Water – Carbon calculator
Know of any other good ones you have used? Let everyone know in the comments below.
Be sure to regularly visit our save water, save money, reduce waste blog category to keep up to date with all things related to water conservation.
