Every drop of water used in the home makes your meter circle around faster than the Chair-o-Plane at Dreamland. But by cutting down on the time you and your family spend in the shower you can not only save money – but you can do your part to help protect stocks of the precious resource of clean, fresh water.
Southern Water customers are already among the most water efficient areas in the country using around 130 litres per person per day compared with the national average of 180 litres. But after an incredibly dry winter in 2016 and no rain last autumn, our biggest reservoir had a special permit to help get it refilled in time for high demand in summer.
More than three quarters of what Southern water supplies comes from natural reservoirs deep underground. These aquifers have also suffered from unusual weather patterns over the last two years.
Combined with growing population it all adds up to one thing – water is precious, don’t waste a drop.
The average UK shower last eight minutes, according to research by Unilever. Taking into account the energy costs that is equivalent to £416 a year for the average UK family or a whopping £918 for power showers which use double the energy and water.
Southern Water reckons that just four minutes is all you need for a proper shower – although we’ll make allowances for Cousin It from The Adams Family or those with especially long hair.
Translated into water volumes, a power shower uses about 15 litres a minute while a shower with a water saving head uses about 9 litres. With power shower users using 43,800 litres of water a year with just one eight minute shower a day, they could save enough water to fill one of the largest bulk tankers on British roads.
Cutting your shower time is one of the easiest tricks to save water but how to time it? We give away free hour glass-style shower timers which do the job. But it can be challenged to watch the sand running through when you’ve got soap and shampoo in your eyes.
We have a neat alternative – time your morning spruce up with a four minute long shower anthem. Southern Water has got hold a box of awesome bluetooth speakers specially designed to stick on your bathroom tiles, connect to your smart phone or computer and waft – or blast – sweet sounds to your ears while you shampoo some sweet smells into your hair.
Maybe you’ve already got your anthem lined up – Rain Town by Deacon Blue clocks in a 3 minutes 50 seconds, It’s Raining Men made famous by The Weather Girls is a challenging three minutes thirty one seconds. TLC’s Waterfalls is out of bounds though – an inefficient 4 minutes forty, sorry.
And yes, we’re giving the speakers away. Not so fast though – not just anyone can have one – it’s part of the Southern Water #AquaHacks competition.
You’ve been showering us with your water saving tips & we’re about to send our latest #AquaHacks winners their prizes! If you're our customer and fancy getting your hands on a new Bluetooth speaker, tweet us your best AquaHacks to be in for a chance to win. pic.twitter.com/2LGtFHxxNr
— Southern Water (@SouthernWater) June 4, 2018
Southern Water customers can win one of our official #AquaHacks speakers by sending us your best water saving tip – and they do not have to be shower related so however you’ve cut down on water use in the home could be a way to win.
To enter tweet @SouthernWater with #AquaHacks or email [email protected]
