Residents could cut £820,000 from their energy bills by using water more carefully, according to a report.

At Home with Water, a study by the Energy Saving Trust Foundation with other bodies, spoke to 86,000 British households in Britain.

It found that showers are the biggest consumers in the home. It also discovered that the average shower lasts seven and a half minutes but cutting that by just a minute could help save £820,000 on energy bills every year.

Showers use a quarter of all the water consumed in the home, three per cent more than lavatories, 22 per cent.

The study found that just over a fifth (22 per cent) of household water is used in the kitchen where 95 per cent of people boil the kettle every day, with 40 per cent doing so five times a day or more. However, three quarters of households still boil more water than they need – costing Newham residents £240,000 a year.

Andrew Tucker, water strategy manager at Energy Saving Trust, said: “It’s clear that we are all using more water-consuming appliances regularly, especially showers, but that doesn’t mean householders in Newham are powerless to control their water use.

An average Newham household could save £22 on their energy bills each year, with metered households saving an additional £13 on their water bills by:

· Showering smarter – installing an eco-shower head to a mixer or power shower, which 49 per cent of households may be eligible to do;

· Turning it down – washing clothes at 30C, saving 40 per cent on a wash at 50-60C;

· Budgeting your brews – boil only the water you need when you fill the kettle

For more information visit http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/ or call the Energy Saving Trust’s helpline on 0300 123 1234.