How to save water: 15 tips and how many litres each habit uses
To save water, start with what uses a lot in little time: long showers, an open hose, a tap running over the dishes and leaks. Here are 15 tips for home and work, with how many litres each habit uses, and what changes when the bill belongs to a company.
By T&D Sustentável 10 min read
In this article · 8
To save water, start with what uses a lot in little time: long showers, an open hose, a tap running over the dishes and leaks. A 15-minute shower uses 135 litres, and a 5-minute one with the tap off while you soap up, 45; washing the pavement with a hose for 15 minutes takes 279 litres, which a broom saves entirely. The 15 tips below come with the cost of each habit, at home and at work.
In short:
- The biggest quick win is in four habits: showers, dishes, hoses and toilets.
- Leaks are waste that never stops: a toilet with a visible trickle loses 144 litres a day, and a dripping tap from 6 to more than 32.
- Outdoors, a bucket and a broom replace the hose: washing a car drops from about 600 to 60 litres, according to Brazil’s National Water Agency (ANA).
- The water meter tells you whether the savings are real: read it every week and run the leak test once a month.
- In a company the same tips apply, but the bigger gain comes from metering by area, hunting leaks and reviewing processes.
How much water does each habit use?
The table brings together estimates published by Brazilian public bodies and by São Paulo’s City Council. They are reference values: actual use changes with mains pressure and equipment, but the ratio between the habit and the tip holds.
| Habit | How much it uses | With the tip |
|---|---|---|
| 15-minute shower, with a water heater | 135 litres | 45 litres in 5 minutes, turning the tap off while soaping |
| Brushing teeth for 5 minutes with the tap running | 12 litres | More than 11.5 litres less, with the tap off and a cup for rinsing |
| Washing dishes for 15 minutes with the tap half open | 117 litres | 20 litres, scraping leftovers first and soaping with the tap off |
| Laundry tub with the tap open for 15 minutes | Up to 279 litres | Fill the tub to soap and keep the tap closed |
| Washing the pavement with a hose for 15 minutes | 279 litres | None, with a broom |
| Washing a car with a hose | About 600 litres | About 60 litres, with a bucket |
| Watering with a hose for 10 minutes | Up to 190 litres | Water early or late in the day, when less evaporates |
| Flush valve pressed for 6 seconds | 10 to 14 litres | Flush only when needed, with the valve adjusted |
| Toilet with a visible trickle | 144 litres a day | None, after the repair |
| Dripping tap | From 6 to more than 32 litres a day | None, after the repair |
| Medium-sized uncovered pool | About 3,785 litres a month, from evaporation alone | 90% less, with a cover |
The sources for each row are listed at the end of the article. With the table in mind, the 15 tips are grouped by place.
How do you save water in the bathroom?
The bathroom holds the most frequent habits of the day, so small changes there add up quickly.
1. A 5-minute shower, tap off while soaping
It is the change that pays most at home: from 135 to 45 litres per shower, according to the estimate published by São Paulo’s City Council. Campaigns by ANA and the São Paulo state government put 5 to 6 minutes as enough time to wash.
2. Tap off while brushing your teeth and shaving
Wet the brush, close the tap and use a cup to rinse. That is more than 11.5 litres less per brushing. By ANA’s count, this habit alone saves 16,425 litres a year.
3. Flush only when needed, and never use the toilet as a bin
A flush valve pressed for 6 seconds uses 10 to 14 litres. Paper, floss and cotton buds go in the bin, not the bowl. Where there is a dual-flush cistern, the smaller button is for liquids.
4. Fix the toilet that leaks
A trickle running non-stop into the bowl loses 144 litres a day, according to the water conservation manual of ANA, FIESP and SindusCon-SP. With a close-coupled cistern, put a few drops of dye inside the cistern and wait 15 minutes without flushing: if the colour shows in the bowl, the seal is leaking.
5. Aerators on taps and flow-regulated showers
An aerator mixes air into the water and keeps the feeling of a strong jet with less water. Flow regulators do the same for showers. They are cheap parts that work on their own, without depending on habit.
How do you save water in the kitchen and laundry?
Here the waste is the tap left running while the hands do something else.
6. Scrape leftovers and soap the dishes with the tap off
Washing dishes for 15 minutes with the tap half open uses 117 litres; scraping leftovers first and soaping everything with the tap closed, it can fall to 20 litres. One basin to soap and another to rinse help, as ANA recommends.
7. Dishwasher and washing machine only when full
The machine uses practically the same water half empty or full. Gather the clothes and dishes and use full capacity, as ANA advises, instead of several half loads.
8. Fill the tub to soap, keep the tap closed
With the tap open for 15 minutes, a laundry tub can use up to 279 litres. Fill the tub, soap with the tap closed and open it only to rinse.
9. Reuse the last rinse water
The washing machine’s rinse water can wash the yard, the laundry area and floor cloths. Keep it in a covered bucket, so it does not breed mosquitoes.
How do you save water outdoors?
This is where the hose lives, and where the biggest volumes leave in a few minutes.
10. A broom instead of a hose
Washing the pavement with a hose for 15 minutes takes 279 litres. A broom cleans the same area with no water; for a localised stain, a damp cloth with reused water does the job.
11. Wash the car with a bucket
With a hose, a wash takes about 600 litres; with a bucket, about 60, according to ANA. One tenth of the water for the same clean car.
12. Water early or late in the day
An open garden hose can use up to 190 litres in 10 minutes, and under strong sun part of it evaporates before reaching the roots. Water early in the morning or late in the afternoon and prefer a watering can or drip irrigation.
13. Cover the pool
A medium-sized pool exposed to sun and wind loses about 3,785 litres a month from evaporation alone. With a cover, the loss falls by 90%, according to the São Paulo state government’s leaflet.
How do you know the savings are working?
The last two tips turn savings into a number: without measuring, you cannot tell whether they happened.
14. Fix every leak the same day
A dripping tap loses from 6 to more than 32 litres a day, depending on the speed of the drip. A leak is the only waste that works 24 hours a day, including while everyone sleeps.
15. Read the water meter every week and run the leak test
Note the reading on the same day and time every week and compare the daily average. Once a month, run the test ANA recommends: close all taps and valves and watch the meter; if it keeps turning, there is a leak somewhere in the pipework. The full step by step, and what to do next, is in how to find a hidden water leak.
How does a company save water?
At home, habit is what weighs. In a company, what weighs is what nobody sees: the buried leak, the unadjusted equipment, the process running without metering and even the tariff classification. The tips above apply to washrooms and kitchens, but the bigger gain comes from four fronts:
- Meter by area. Meters per area and telemetry show where the water goes, hour by hour. Night-time consumption, with operations stopped, reveals the loss that daytime use hides. See how remote water consumption monitoring works.
- Hunt leaks. In a large building the manual test is not enough, because consumption never reaches zero. The search becomes a routine, with equipment.
- Review equipment and processes. Badly adjusted flush valves, urinals, floor washing, industrial kitchens, laundries and cooling towers. The most common sources of loss are in the four invisible causes of water waste, and reuse in water reuse in industry.
- Check the tariff. Category, number of billing units and the sewage charge set what each cubic metre costs. A wrong registration weighs every month without looking like an error, and is corrected through Water tariff consulting.
The result shows at scale. At Rede D’Or, T&D’s water efficiency project cut consumption by 16.5% across the 40 hospitals served, saving 260,000 m³ of water in 2025, according to the hospital network’s sustainability report, prepared under the GRI standard. The step-by-step programme is in the guide to water savings for businesses.
Frequently asked questions
Which habit uses the most water at home?
The ones that leave water running for many minutes: long showers, a hose on the pavement or the car, and a tap running over the dishes. A 15-minute shower uses 135 litres, and 15 minutes of hose on the pavement, 279. Leaks come close behind, because they never stop.
How long should a shower take?
Five to six minutes are enough to wash, according to campaigns by ANA and the São Paulo state government. Turning the tap off while soaping adds to the savings: the shower drops from 135 litres in 15 minutes to 45 litres in 5.
Does a tap aerator save water?
It does. It mixes air into the jet and reduces flow without losing comfort, and it works on its own, without depending on habit. The exact gain depends on mains pressure and on the model.
Is it worth reusing the washing machine’s water?
It is, for washing the yard, the pavement, the laundry area and floor cloths. Keep the water in a covered container and use it quickly, so it does not breed mosquitoes.
How does a company save water?
Start by measuring: read the meter every week, look at night-time consumption and split metering by area. Then hunt leaks, review equipment and processes and check the tariff. The full path is in the guide to water savings for businesses.
Sources
- São Paulo City Council, «Sabesp alerta para aumento do consumo de água com o calor» (2012), in Portuguese: showers, dishes and hoses
- Water-saving leaflet by SAAE Cordeirópolis, with São Paulo state government data, published by the PCJ basin committees (2014), in Portuguese: teeth, dishes, laundry tub, pavement, toilets and pools
- National Water Agency (ANA), water-saving campaign by its Environmental Management Committee (2014), in Portuguese: showers, teeth, cars, machines, dishes and the meter test
- Conservação e reúso da água em edificações (ANA, FIESP and SindusCon-SP, 2005), leak loss table, reproduced in Souza et al., 21st Brazilian Water Resources Symposium (ABRHidro, 2015), in Portuguese
- The Rede D’Or case: 16.5% less water in 40 hospitals, with figures from the network’s sustainability report (GRI standard, 2025)
