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You can measure the savings the easy way by seeing
the effect on your utility bills however be cautious since savings
can be masked by other events occurring at the same time e.g.
an extra person in the house increases water use. Water bills can be infrequent meaning it can be a long time before you find out if you are really saving water. Also water
use is not constant with for example large peaks at weekends and
higher use at certain times of the year.
If you do use the water bill as a guide beware of estimated readings. They are usually wrong and often in the water companies favour. Whenever an estimated bill arrives phone through the correct reading and get a new bill, this helps with keeping control of costs.
The best way is to keep a record of the water
meter reading every few weeks, trying to keep as regular as
possible, calculating the savings of water used and cost
each time. From experience checking around every four weeks
works best. There is an a meter reading record sheet to use for this in the record sheet section of the site. To make this simpler and remove the need for manual calculations you can use EnCalcLU a water cost and use calculator which is free for non commercial use from JSutils. Doing this also enables things going wrong to be spotted early and hence saving unnecessary cost.
As part of monitoring and maintaining savings it is a good idea to get into the habit of going round the house each night to make sure all the taps are turned off. Also don't forget garden watering systems which can use massive amounts of water.
You can also use the water meter readings to check for leaks. The meter reading should not be increasing with everything turned off. I usually wait around half an hour after being sure everything is off before watching the meter for around a minute to make sure the reading is steady. Any movement of the reading indicates a possible leak, either from for example a dripping tap or cistern or more seriously a leak from a pipe.
In the UK the water pressure is generally fairly consistent and between 2 and 4 bar however it can vary quite a bit in different areas meaning comparing water saving results between properties may not be comparing like for like. If the water pressure varies significantly over the day for instance it may be difficult to get reproducible measurements. It is usually fairly obvious when the water pressure is low or high - note this comment only applies to items on the direct feed and not those fed by indirect means e.g. tanks in the loft. It is possible to purchase water pressure guages which fits most taps from good plumbers merchants.
See the water measurement tips for more information on this subject.
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