Water saving tips

oldbloke · Guru

Water saving tips

Dougwe · Chief one feather

G'day oldbloke,

Good article.

I save heaps of water by not showering but I found when down the street people would give me a dirty look and walk well clear of me so had to find another way. Handy for CV19 though. So found by using baby wipes all the time no water was used again.

I have noticed I seem to cry a lot though.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

oldbloke · Guru

Lol

Bucket of warm water does it for me every second day.

-- Edited by oldbloke on Wednesday 30th of September 2020 09:01:00 PM

dabbler · Guru

My water use with showering depends on my location and activity types. A day walk into a gorge and back definitely needs a shower almost year round. A shady all day rainforest walk usually just needs s bird bath. Sometimes I set up the shower tent and never use it all. Those times are usually when I drive to lookouts and drive back to my folding campbed come lounger under a shady awning or tree. Those days are becoming increasingly common.

Mike Harding · Guru

I try to always camp by water, even an old dam will do, I heat water from that in a stainless bucket over the fire and use it for everything except drinking. I also purify the water by adding 2% household bleach to it. I keep the 200L in the van tanks for drinking/cooking and have never come close to running out. On trips into town for supplies I take 100L of plastic containers and fill those with potable water.

JayDee · Guru

Great comments from you Doug.

You are on your way to becoming the "" Court Jester"" of the forum.

Happy Days mate

Jay&Dee

Izabarack · Guru

Time on Military exercise taught me that 5 litres is enough for a shower type clean. Now, age and a good deodorant has led to a situation where a a couple of wet wash cloths cleans pits and bits after a day of little hard exercise. An electric razor and short hair also helps minimise my water usage for personal and hygiene purposes.

Flocked and crudely filtered creek water is sufficient for clothes washing and dish washing. A silicone spatula is great for removing most of the food scraps from plates and cooking utensils. I do use water to flush a Porta Pottie but just about any quality of water is Ok for that purpose. Jocks and Socks are washed every day but those do not take a lot of water to clean. Drinking water, I plan on 3 litres a day and do not comprise on that. I can handle a good 9 dsys off grid with the water I carry in to a location.

Iza

bgt · Guru

My father, and father inlaw, washed, bathed, showered once a week all their lives. Now if we don't shower once a day it's the end of the world.
The world has changed. I wonder how Australia would react if the governments passed a law that prohibited more than one shower a week to save valuable water stocks? There would be a real stink over it!!!!

Maybe something for the Greens to consider.

Whenarewethere · Guru

At home we are pretty good, bucket in the shower to save water for plants etc.

But being in a block of units there is 1 water meter for the whole building. We pay for other residents who could not give a stuff & there is quite a few of them.

We can't carry much water camping so are each down to 2.5L per day. Our bowl of muesli we rince with some of our black tea, then rince with clean water which we drink. No wastage.

Washing hands we drip water out of a Sigg bottle.

I have washed me, then recycled to wash a few clothes, then recycled to wash the car with 5L.

Tony Bev · Guru

While travelling, we always use bottle water for drinking, not to save the water in the tanks, but as protection against tummy upsets

We use approximately 5 litres of water each, to shower

Wet ourself down, use shower gel on flannel, rinse ourself off

I carry (in two tanks), 140 litres of potable water, plus (in storage), 15 litres as emergency

When I know that I am going to be at a camp, for any length of time, I fill 6 X 20 litre collapsible water containers

Plain Truth · Guru

We only use our caravan tank water for drinking,we usually camp near water.

We have a pump and heat ex changer mounted behind the Bullbar,just put the hose in plastic drum if not near water.If near a stream or river,throw the hose in and you can have a long hot shower.

woolman · Guru

In my younger days we had a professional rabbit trapper and his advice he had a bath once a month whether he needed or not.

hufnpuf · Senior Member

I've been looking at a lot on-line lately. The other day, I came across this shower that has a tub on the bottom and you can put the pump in there and pump out the water over and over. You can have a long shower but only use a few litres. Can't remember what it's called at the moment, but it looked pretty good.

dabbler · Guru

hufnpuf, pretty much any pumped shower can draw from a tub and a few manufacturers offer everything but the tub itself. We shower standing in a softish plastic tub from Bunnings but draw water from our tanks. Waste water is more easily controlled plus you can gauge consumption.

Whenarewethere · Guru

This works really well as shower at 0.5L per minute but at about 80amps. 3 compressors at 40psi continuous running. The water spray feels a bit like a light scrubbing brush.

dabbler · Guru

My parents were grey nomads before anyone applied that label and seasoned desert crossers. More often than not in the 60s, desert tracks were not well defined if at all and spinifex fires in the undercarriage were an ever present danger. They carried fire extinguishers of some sort but also used a brass spray boom and a dedicated jerry can of water for spot fires. When pump up pressure sprays became available they started using them instead. My mum used it for a shower until they moved from tent to caravan. I'd forgotten that until whenarewethere posted his pic.

msg · Guru

bgt wrote:
My father, and father inlaw, washed, bathed, showered once a week all their lives. Now if we don't shower once a day it's the end of the world.
The world has changed. I wonder how Australia would react if the governments passed a law that prohibited more than one shower a week to save valuable water stocks? There would be a real stink over it!!!!

Maybe something for the Greens to consider.

Quiet, Don't give Vic govt any ideas

Recoup · Guru

Dougwe wrote:
G'day oldbloke,

Good article.

I save heaps of water by not showering but I found when down the street people would give me a dirty look and walk well clear of me so had to find another way. Handy for CV19 though. So found by using baby wipes all the time no water was used again.

I have noticed I seem to cry a lot though.

Doug , I wash only my feet , that way the dirt will slide down and I always have a cleen neck , hope it helps

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

hufnpuf · Senior Member

dabbler wrote:
hufnpuf, pretty much any pumped shower can draw from a tub

oh yes, my hot water do-dad can pump from a container/bucket, but I don't know whether it would cope pumping soapy/"dirty" water. The shower has (material)sides that direct the "showered-in" water back to the tub it's pumping from (as well as what's dropping from the shower rose) so you are just reusing the same water. Maybe you can set it up DIY similarly with any hot water service, I don't know.

iana · Guru

Less extreme water saving ideas, we have a long spout mixer tap on the hand basin, by putting a bowl in the hand basin, we can collect water we rinse our hands with. Next time for hand washing, use the water in the bowl, then rinse your hands catching the water in the bowl. Saves good water going down the drain.
Use a cup of water when washing your teeth.
Put a bowl in the kitchen sink for washing dishes, but --- I would prefer a redesigned kitchen sink, being rectangle in shape, about 150mm wide, 400 long and about 250 deep. then one can fill to the depth required and use much less water.
Showing technique standard for us now.
And generally a mental approach to not wasting water.

Whenarewethere · Guru

A few years ago during the new year we were at Morton NP. We camped in a quieter area, but when there we walked through the main camping area for future reference.

We were shocked at the sheer number of campers with instantaneous gas hot water shower setups. For Chr_st's sake, you are camping..... it's summer! We sat in the river for relief from the heat!

If it goes any further campers will be flying in the last of the blue glacial ice to be heated with the methane from Vestal Virgins consecrated to Vesta vowed to chastity, sharing the charge of maintaining the sacred fire burning on the goddess alter!

oldbloke · Guru

iana wrote:
Less extreme water saving ideas, we have a long spout mixer tap on the hand basin, by putting a bowl in the hand basin, we can collect water we rinse our hands with. Next time for hand washing, use the water in the bowl, then rinse your hands catching the water in the bowl. Saves good water going down the drain.
Use a cup of water when washing your teeth.
Put a bowl in the kitchen sink for washing dishes, but --- I would prefer a redesigned kitchen sink, being rectangle in shape, about 150mm wide, 400 long and about 250 deep. then one can fill to the depth required and use much less water.
Showing technique standard for us now.
And generally a mental approach to not wasting water.

Yep, sounds like you have the big round sink like we have. Ridiculously big. I make a point of filling the kettle if waiting for hot water. KISS.

hufnpuf · Senior Member

iana wrote:

And generally a mental approach to not wasting water.

When I was a little kid we had water restrictions and I was "programmed" not to leave taps running when you brush your teeth or soap your hands, wash your hair, that sort of thing. It stuck with me even when those restrictions were stopped and I've done it ever since. We're now on permanent water restrictions so my "training" has stood me in good stead for those. I didn't have to relearn the things we need to do over here.

iana · Guru

An idea that I have had, is that holiday camps be set up around Australia. These camps would be low cost so families from the cities could go there and experience reduced resource living. In as much water would be carried from tanks, the toilet would have a cassette that needed emptying, electricity would be batteries and solar. People then could learn to use energy and resources wisely, and not take them for granted. If every person in Aus could reduce their consumption of water by say 10 liters per day that would be a tremendous saving.

Whenarewethere · Guru

Make every household have a water tank. It is only once you have a tank you realise the obscene amount of water one uses.

The problem is the government doesn't actually want people to save water as there is too much money made by wasting it.

My guess is, if you have a tank at home you are probably better at saving water when camping.

hufnpuf · Senior Member

Whenarewethere wrote:
Make every household have a water tank.

Back in the "olden days" when I was a kid, people had tanks (the round corrugated iron ones), then they all got taken out. Now, people are installing them again (the plastic type). The new ones can be plumbed in and used in the house (eg to flush the toilet) so they are better than the old ones where you just manually used the water via a tap. They are expensive to have put in, you can get some sort of rebate, but it's not much. It wouldn't be that hard to make them a requirement in new houses.

dabbler · Guru

I thought all states required new houses to have rainwater tanks but a quick check on Qld regs shows the requirement was dropped a few years back. I know building companies and new home buyers think it's an added cost that shouldn't be compulsory. Very short term thinking really. My poly tank is plumbed to the laundry, the downstairs toilet cistern and a tap near the garage. Gravity feed is out of the question with my house and yard Plumbing (and electrical for the pump) cost was minimal because we didn't require a lot of internal work and I grabbed a pressure pump on special. Retaining and laying the slab was by far more expensive than the tank after rebates, again because of the yard and ground levels. I'm sure we have saved money but I've never done the sums.

Whenarewethere · Guru

It varies State to State, it was only a few decades ago that tanks at home were illegal in residential areas.

On Sydney Northern Beaches I put 2 x 5000L tanks in myself, leveled to the mm on blue metal, high end pump & also taps around the house, for my parents home during the drought. All plumbed in to collect every drop off the roof & feeding the automatic sprinkler system. The plumber did that part.

The gardener was impressed. The water was so "soft" to drink straight out of the tank.

Years later sold the house as parents died. I run into the gardener who I had know for many years & he looked after the house next door, still bump into him today.

He said the new owners took out the 10,000L set up, which was out of the way in a pointless part of the garden.

No hope! They must have had to cut up the tanks to get them out.

Our block of units, I have been trying over the years to get a tank in. We have various places & could start with a limited system to see how it goes & expand it if people are happy, but people want more rubbish bins!

Digger2 · Member

Plain Truth wrote:
We only use our caravan tank water for drinking,we usually camp near water.
We have a pump and heat ex changer mounted behind the Bullbar,just put the hose in plastic drum if not near water.If near a stream or river,throw the hose in and you can have a long hot shower.

Dont say that too loudly. Youll have the grey water police going off their rocker!

-- Edited by Digger2 on Sunday 4th of October 2020 05:44:27 PM

Bobdown · Guru

I don't save water, why try and wash in 5 litres of water and scrimp and save.

Have nice long hot showers , we carry 300 lt and only use a bit for the kettle, dishes and rest in the bathroom.

We can last a week free camping then go and fill up when needed, don't see the point of roughing it at our age.

Cheers Bob