Rising Water Bills | How Can We Save Water and Save Money

We have been talking about water bills rising for a long time now and it affects everyone. According to Water UK, the average household in England and Wales will see an annual rise of £123 in their bill from April 2025, which is a 26% increase.

The cost increases will be a struggle for many households and businesses, in particular for all our schools, who are already struggling on tight budgets. School washrooms and commercial settings have a high footfall of users which means it is really important to look at ways to save water, which in turn saves money.

We regularly advise our customers of different ways they can reduce their water usage, such as installing timed flow taps where the flow of water will shut off after approximately 8-10 seconds of use. Or installing a water saving aerator to existing taps, can reduce the flow of water to a range of speeds, even as low as 3 litres per minute.

Tap aerators, which are also known as flow regulators, save water whilst not compromising the water pressure.  The aerator is the small attachment that fits onto the end of the tap spout and control the amount of water that flows through the tap as they mix the water with air. 

Water saving aerators are available in many different flow rates, usually from 3 litres per minute to 8 litres per minute depending on the user requirements. They can be installed on most taps and can save as much as half your water usage, especially if you have high water pressure.  According to Neoperl, the internationally renowned aerator manufacturer, fitting a tap aerator to a washbasin tap can save up to 60% of water consumption. When you are using aerated water, you are unlikely to notice the difference and saving water also means you will use less energy to heat it and therefore save money on these bills too. 

Tap aerators are not expensive, retailing at around £5-6 each, and they are very simple to fit yourself. To replace an aerator, just unscrew the old one at the end of the spout and put the new one in. To determine which type you require you just need to check whether the threads are on the inside or outside. A male aerator is suitable for taps with a thread on the inside and a female aerator will fit those with the thread on the outside.

Other ways to save water, are to install a sensor tap or non-concussive tap. Both options will limit the amount of water used after a few second of use. Hence there is no danger of a tap left running and wasting water. These are great in high traffic areas in commercial and public environments.

Another suggestion is to install a dual flush toilet, which allows you to switch between a lower flush, which uses less water, or a higher flush when there is more waste. Flush options can be as lower as 2.6 litres per flush, as opposed to a 6-8 litres per flush in older more traditional toilets.

Many homes and leisure centres can also save water by changing their shower heads to an eco-friendly one. A smaller shower head uses less water, especially compared to the large contemporary rain shower heads we see in many bathrooms. You can also fit a flow regulator, which works in the same way as a tap aerator, and limits the amount of water used. We usually recommend a flow rate of 8-12 litres per minute for a shower, which can be achieved with a flow regulator, whereas some showers will use as much as 20 litres per minute.

These are just a few ideas for saving water and many of these products can be found in our Water Controls and Water Saving section.