Seasonal lawn watering restrictions are probably already in place in your community. Keep in mind that a brown lawn isn’t a dead one, so you might want to give your sprinkler a break and embrace the brown grass.
Target hot water use, leaks, laundry, and long showers
Few people on Earth use as much water on a daily basis than Canadians, where a household of three – bathing, flushing, washing clothes and drinking – typically uses about 250,000 litres of water in a year.
What does that add up to? If a kid running a lemonade stand sold a glass of lemonade every five minutes for 12 hours per day, with no days off, they’d need to work 19 straight years to use that much water. If they started the job at age five, they’d be 24 by the time they were done.
The good news? At $1 per drink, they’d make a million dollars over that time.
Lemonade comparisons aside, we use an awful lot of water. Areas of this province are facing annual drought and/or water shortages, and seasonal lawn watering restrictions are now common. Inside the home, heating household water can be expensive.
Did you know? A family of three taking five 10-minute showers each per week over a year could spend $150 a year heating water for showers alone.
Here are 10 ways we can use less water without taking a hit to our quality of life.
1. Install low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators
Low-flow, energy-efficient showerheads can save thousands of litres water per year, without sacrificing water pressure or your shower time.
You can get a low-flow showerhead for as little as $15 or less, and the energy savings in hot water will pay that off fairly quickly.
Start by checking to see that a manufacturer's eco promise rings true. Unless the showerhead uses less water than the typical 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm) – ideally 1.75 gpm or less – it's not really delivering. Take the time to check the gpm number and recognize that not all websites deliver that data. You may have to input that model number into a website that does.
Water-saving faucet aerators help you cut down on water use, which will cut down on your electricity costs. Installing a high-efficiency aerator on your kitchen sink could save you $28 per year in hot water costs.
2. Join the cold water laundry trend
Around 80% of a clothes washer's energy use goes towards heating the water. Most washing machines do a fantastic job washing clothes In cold water.
Get details on how to wash effectively in cold water (and to also save on detergent).
3. Take shorter showers
Take three minutes off your shower times and the savings, both in water use and in energy savings, will add up. If two people in your household do it for a year, you could save $90 in electricity costs.
Take care, meanwhile, to turn the water off while shaving, soaping up your hands, or brushing your teeth.
4. Flush your toilet less
According to the City of Vancouver, the biggest water use in your home is from flushing your toilet, at an average of 24%, followed by showers at 20%. Try to avoid flushing when you don't have to – and consider employing the cottage life mantra: 'If it's yellow, let it mellow'.
Replacing your toilets? Modern low-flow toilets flush exceedingly well and save big on water.
5. Water plants strategically, early in the morning
Water gardens slowly, in the morning, by hand, near the roots. Break up hardened dirt to allow water to soak in, and consider adding mulch to your gardens, as it shades soil and helps conserve soil moisture.
6. Let that lawn go brown, or rewild your yard
A brown lawn is not a dead lawn, so consider letting your lawn go brown. In 2021, Hans Schreier, professor emeritus of watershed management at UBC, told the Vancouver Sun that an estimated 35% of the water in Metro Vancouver goes to watering lawns.
If you want to learn which grasses fare better in drought than others, check out this Better Homes & Gardens story about brown lawns.
Looking to the long term, consider turning your lawn into a meadow full of drought-resistant native plants. A cbc.ca story from 2023 looked at the increase in "meadow-making" in Vancouver Island's Capital Region District.
Metro Vancouver's Grow Green Guide is a fantastic online resource for designing gardens and lawns in the Lower Mainland. Use the website's Pick A Plant search tool, to filter by plant type, sun exposure, plant height, and bloom colour.
7. Inspect your taps, fix leaks
Inspect your taps a couple times a year, and learn how to fix leaks. A leaky faucet can waste up to 11,350 litres of water each year, and fixing a leaky hot water faucet can save you up to $33 per year in water heating costs.
8. Replace that top-loading washing machine
When shopping for a new clothes washer, look for ENERGY STAR®-certified models. These have been tested to meet the highest standards for energy efficiency and reliability. They use about 25% less energy and 33% less water than regular washers.
Plus, an ENERGY STAR front-loading machine – see our Power Smart Shop for options – can cut water use by nearly 40% and electricity use up to 65% compared to a conventional top-loader.
9. Stop handwashing dishes
According to a German study, a full dishwasher load can wash 144 items with 13 litres of water, while hand washing those same items uses 100 litres on average. So if you have a dishwasher, use it, and select the eco mode, even if it takes longer.
Resist rinsing your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Just scrape food scraps off dishes (a silicon spatula works best) before putting them in the dishwasher, and arrange your dishes so that few, if any, touch. That will ensure the washer's jets properly clean all your dishes.
Buying a new dishwasher? Browse for energy-efficient options at our online Power Smart Shop.
10. Get a rain barrel
Consider adding a rain barrel to your yard to grab the freely available rain for when you need it. Several B.C. municipalities offer rebates each spring for the purchase of rain barrels but act fast on those offers – they're increasingly popular. You can get rain barrels, starting at about $120, at larger home and garden shops in B.C.