Faucet Open Half

A small environmentalist idea.

Posted on 2026 July 7

Original

Drafted on 2020 August 9

I realized that I usually open the faucet all the way any time I want to use water. I mean just 0 -> 100 for anything. Anything from washing my hands, to filling a glass, to rinsing off a plate. I kinda realized that it was a bit overkill to do this every time.

So I got this thought in my head: Maybe I don’t need this much water volume or pressure every time?

So I’ve come up with this idea:

I’m only going to open the faucet all the way when I’m filling a container.

Any other time, I’ll do like 50%.

I’m thinking that maybe over some time this will break some bad water-wasting habits.

6 Years Later

It’s been about 6 years now so let’s talk about how this worked out for me 😸

First off, I don’t run the faucet when I’m brushing my teeth! Let’s start with the most obvious one and the level 1 check to take on this challenge. Don’t run the water unless you need it while brushing your teeth. 🪥

I started out this project by only turning the water completely on when I wanted to fill something. The goal was to get as much water in a container as possible so it made sense. When it was time to wash dishes, I tried to keep the water around the smallest amount I needed to be able to scrub something comfortably with a sponge. That ended up being around 30% give or take. A steady stream of water but nowhere near full volume.

I wonder if blocking the drain in the sink and filling it with water is a better idea. That’s usually how restaurants would do it, right? My sink is pretty large so I try to use less from the faucet instead of blocking the drain. It works for me. 🤷

Washing my hands was the one I couldn’t really break. Try it sometime! My brain implicitly associates the pressure and running water with clean, so reducing the pressure made it a little weird. Like I wasn’t actually getting the same amount off of my hands. Weird, right? Also when you’re using a sink that’s automatic, you can’t really control the pressure so be efficient, I guess. 😸

Getting temperature right with a sink faucet with a single handle is harder than you think. When the handle is turned only a little bit from “off”, the hot/cold water balance is way more sensitive than if it’s fully on. I’ve gotten blasted by really hot water more often than I wanted, especially in winter when it takes a while for the water to heat up. If I had 2 knobs for hot/cold then it would probaby be easier. It saves water so I’m willing to take this fight.

It took a while to keep it in my head to save water. It’s a habit. If you do it long enough, you’ll get used to it and it’s easy to do. A little environmentally-friendly choice and it pays off over time.