It’s been one mighty wet winter, but we shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security in the bathroom – not when we each use a staggering 150 litres of water daily, 60 litres being used just for flushing the loo.

Simply leaving taps running while you brush your teeth can waste five litres a minute and dripping taps account for four litres a day (remedy: replace worn washers!).

We’re also conditioned to think that taking a shower is a virtuous way of keeping clean. Wisdom has it that a five-minute shower uses a third of the water of a bath, but with the prevalence of power showers and rainwater showerheads, and the vogue for all-too-comfortable wet rooms, we’re deluding ourselves if we think we’re being economical.

Turning the water off while you shampoo and soap up is one way of keeping the water usage down. Another is fitting a push-button shower such as you’d find at a sports centre. If that feels a little utilitarian, a shower timer might be the answer. Available from Nigel’s Eco Store, the Shower Coach timer promises to ‘train’ users to save water when showering, allowing five minutes for ablutions. It costs £4.99.

More excitingly, aerator fittings for showerheads (and taps) magically boost the water volume with air – with a water-saving of as much as 65 per cent – without any loss of oomph. A L Challis are UK distributors for ecologically-aware Swedish company FM Mattsson, whose modernist, water-saving taps, pumps and showerheads include ‘drench’ shower head designs. For sharp, Teutonic designer kit, check out the appealingly-named Mousseur aerator from Grohe. Aqualogic is another good brand offering affordable, energy-efficient shower fittings, taps and cistern dams (more of that in a minute). Most of their aerators come in various flow patterns too, so you needn’t forgo the massage option.

For baths and washbasins, dual flow taps offer a water-saving spray for hand washing or cleaning teeth and a full-flow mode for filling the basin quickly. The spray mode potentially cuts water usage in half. Roca has developed the ‘eco-stop’ mechanism for its stylish tap designs, which is both a flow restrictor as well as a temperature control system – another water-saving feature for showers and tap, because if the water is kept at a constant temperature you don’t waste water while adjusting the heat.

Also available from Roca are tap flow regulators and limiting valves that can be easily fitted into basin, bath, bidet mixers and showers to control the water flow. Other ‘retrofit’ options include Tapmagic’s range of water-saving tap inserts – they don’t even require a plumber and transform a bog-standard fitting into either dual flow or single flow water-wise units.

Dual fittings also appear on lavatories, if you don’t fancy adopting the Aussie mantra, ‘if it’s yellow, let it mellow’. Ideal Standard and Armitage Shanks both make dual flush loos but you can also retrofit flushing devices to most existing loos. Peterton make two versions of their Variflush. Meanwhile Varyflush – nothing to do with the Variflush – makes the Interflush which costs £17.95.

Simply reducing the amount of space in your toilet cistern is another approach to saving water when flushing. You could simply fill a plastic bottle with water and pop that in, or invest in a Toilet Tank Bag, Hippo or cistern dam from Aqualogic. A new idea from Twyford is the Sola rimless loo which, as well as being more hygienic, flushes with just four litres of water.

For one-stop water-saving bathroom shops, check out The Green Building Store which has Kludi monobloc (single-hole) water-saving taps, composting toilets and the contemporary Swedish Ifö range of ‘ultra-efficient’ toilets with matching basins and bidets. Should there be lots of men in your household they even have the Airflush range of water-less urinals too. Construction Resources, the UK’s first ecological builders’ merchant, stocks water-saving loos, oh, and water-less urinals too.

Ali Watkinson writes via : www.newconsumer.com