Smart Water Use Focus Group 2009/10

What you'll find on this page:

• How the Focus Group worked?
• Case studies from the two winning households
• Simple water saving measures

How it worked
 

To keep track of water use, meters were installed and the households monitored their water use over the month of December. In January 2010 these residents worked closely with Council staff to install some simple water saving measures, as well as more innovative approaches such as installing a grey water system to recycle washing machine water onto the garden. Over March the challenge was on to see which household could achieve best overall water efficiency results.

See case studies from the two overall winners of the Focus Group challenge.

Over the whole of Hamilton the average daily water use per person is approximately 300 litres in summer and 200 litres in winter. As the focus of this year's campaign was outdoor water use, all the households in this year's competition had fairly large gardens. As you'd expect there is a lot of variation across Hamilton, with some residents using thousands of litres per day (usually watering large lawns or filling swimming pools) and some well under 100 litres per day.
 

The graph shows December and March average daily use in the five households as well as the savings made and the number of people in each household:

Case studies

Household A

This household mulched most of their garden with three cubic metres of compost mulch from the Hamilton Organic Centre in Wickham St (cost $110 delivered - phone 846 1514 for information).

Comments from Household A:

"I found the compost mulch made a huge difference on my gardens. I rarely watered during the time  it has been on the gardens and certainly not to the extent of previous summers in spite of the very dry March.

"In one part of the garden where no mulch was laid some plants suffered. The vege garden was very successful with less frequent watering and great crops of vegetables. I noticed that the health of roses and other plants was much improved this season, with less black spot mildew or fungal disease which I think can be caused by sprinklers.

"Another advantage of the mulch was weed suppression. Overall I spent less time weeding and watering, and also found the moisture meter very helpful in checking whether or not water was needed."

Household C

This household installed a sullage (grey water) pipe ($200 plus approximately $50 for fittings - Sourced from Watersmart Limited, phone 0508 928 377).

The buried pipe as well as the generous pile of compost meant that over the month of March, the only water to go onto the garden was waste water from the washing machine.

The picture below shows the pipe with connection to gully trap just before it was buried under the surface of the garden bed:

This next picture was taken after the installation of the pipe at the end of February:

This picture taken at the end of March shows damp soil visible beneath the dry surface of the garden. Also visible are the abundant chillies, capsicum, beans and brocolli:

Simple water saving measures:

Contact

 
 
 
 
 
 
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City Waters
Level 5, Council Offices
Garden Place
Hamilton City Council
Private Bag 3010
Hamilton 3240
Phone: 838 6999
Fax: 838 6988

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