Water Conservation - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for returning to Action Radio! We are here talking about current affairs and global issues. I am Jill, and today our focus will be on discussing the very concerning issue of the significance of water conservation and how you can make your own contribution at home.

The most universal wasted energy of all the domestic kinds is heat. Yet since my house has well-insulated walls, I'm lucky enough to do nothing with this problem. Yet I still found out that a large amount of water was wasted owing to my way of life. I looked into a few approaches online trying to reduce my water usage as much as possible and have been pleasantly surprised to figure out that there are experts in that field who can make some instant changes to my home. But the only dark side is these works are so costly that there are no means for me to get financial help.

Now, if any of you listeners are interested in reducing your energy usage, here are a couple of easy and positive changes you can make immediately. A lot of the magazines will recommend that you change your bulbs for those with energy saving capabilities. However, I have found that these make little difference to your electricity bills and they also severely reduce the light levels in your home. Instead, simply switch off all plug sockets and appliances to make an immediate saving on your electricity consumption. If this doesn't make enough of a saving for you, you could later turn down the thermostat as well.

Even though my energy provider gave me discount on my bills for prompt payment, this doesn't make enough of a saving for my monthly bill considering the amount of energy that I was using. So, I felt like switching to another provider. Not only could I do a considerable monthly saving and get other perks from the new company. The bills can now be paid online, for instance, which was a thrill to me because it saves me from driving to the bank. If our contract endures more than one year, they will also provide me with a deduction for all the energy-saving appliances I am currently using.

Now, many of you listeners will have an electricity meter at home so I'm very sure that all of you will know the problems associated with them. These meters can occupy a lot of room in your home and can be very unsightly if you cannot tuck them away in a cupboard. Mine is as well so large which measures both gas and electricity usage. But it is nicely hidden in the coat cupboard and I'm lucky enough to escape from accessing it easily. But the cons about this is that whenever I need to take a meter reading, I'll have to use a torch because it is hidden in darkness, and without a flashlight I can't read the numbers on the screen correctly.

I recently extended my house with a new room that takes up as bathroom with a low energy boiler so I am able to take long showers guilty-free. My walls are nice and thick and well-insulted, but disappointingly the window is a little draughty; thus I am about to make some investments by doing some upgrading. Given the renewable energy, I initially thought about installing solar panels on the roof to heat the water rather than applying a new low energy boiler, which was the price-friendly alternative. But I finally determined that the panels would make my house ugly on the exterior, in spite of their easiness on technical operation.

Now if you are keen to taking long showers as I am, switching from baths to showers doesn't change much on your total water usage. Instead, some small effective changes can be quite helpful and efficient. When making a cup of tea, for instance, before boiling water, measure out the amount that you need during the procedure. Also, when brushing teeth, use a cup of water instead of letting the tap water running. I would recommend you not to fill up washing machine before switching it on, because I found out that the clothes were not thoroughly cleaned. Also, call a plumber to fix your dripping taps; this will give rise to a great reduction of water being wasted.

Before finishing today's show, I'd like to address two questions that we often get asked by listeners. We had some great feedback about our answer to last week's question on how to calculate the price involved in powering domestic appliances, so let's see how we do this week. One of the most commonly asked questions this week was which device is the lowest energy option for watching films. The simplest answer is that the smaller the screen, the lower the energy used.

One of our listeners wrote in with a question that made me chuckle, and the answer is yes, solar panels only work when the sun is out! Now, on a more serious note, a number of you wanted to know what the most efficient temperature is to set the thermostat to. The answer is that the closer you set it to room temperature, the lower the energy used.

Before saying goodbye today, I'll give you one last tip: turn off all the lights when you leave the room.