As soon as you step on a boat you know that saving water and energy should become a natural behaviour. During our cruising years, we only drank water from our Spectra watermaker (MPC 5000). It’s been working great and the international customer service has always been very useful and efficient when we had an issue (usually with the salinity probe which needed to be changed). However, it is not because you are making your own water that you shouldn’t check your consumption. Three young children can easily leave a tap open for too long or sing a really long song under the shower.
On our main taps in the main heads, the main galley, and the outside shower are all equipped with a small water saving nozzle simply fitted to the existing tap which adds air in the bubbles. You don’t have the impression of having a thinner flow and you could save up to 50% of water allowing you to have guilt free showers after every swim.
When we are anchored or sailing we do the dishes with sea water and simply rinse with fresh water. This saves a lot of water.
Three taps in the galley? The big one is fresh water for normal use, the second one is sea water and the third one is fresh water with an extra level of filtration for drinking, mainly for shore water.
When we are in areas where it is less easy to make water (less clean water or with a higher risk to clog up quickly the filters because of high density of algae) we have a more drastic water saving solution. We use a garden sprayer. This way, we can shower using only about 1L/person. It is very efficient.
