Top Ten Water Saving Tips

Bruce_26

1. Use a shower instead of a bath.
2. Do a full load of wash when using the washing machine.
3. Use a greywater recycling system.

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Top Ten Water Saving Tips

I am a member of Lowell's Green Building Commission and I have been selected to compile this list, because I am the water guy. Here is what I have, any other ideas?

1) Install a low flush toilet or waterless urinal

2) Install low flow shower heads

3) Install low flow faucet aerators or new low flow faucets

4) Don't leave the water running when washing dishes

5) Don't leave the water running brushing your teeth

6) Water your lawn early in the morning or after sunset to reduce evaporation

7) Use drip irrigation where possible

8) Use groundwater for lawn and garden

9) Purchase energy star appliances- washing machines and dishwashers

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Steamhead (in transit)

You forgot #10

shower with a friend!

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

Landscape using materials suited to your general rainfall.

Mitch_4

here are few other ideas

Run the dishwasher only when full, use rain collection barrels for watering gardens.

Edit to steamhead :Shower with your significant other, is better than showering with a friend. The guy that helps me with bigger jobs is a good friend but I ain't showering with him to save H2O...just not comfortable with other guys...sorry (lol)

Also do not water your lawn at sunset..promotes mold and mosquito breeding..

Steamhead (in transit)

That was from a bumper sticker

I used to see a lot during the first energy crises.

Speaking of low-flow toilets, here's a thread we had on the subject a while back:

http://forums.invision.net/Thread.cfm?CFApp=2&Thread_ID=47949&mc=30

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jp_2

hand carry water

we did it for hundreds of years and survived!

I brush my teeth with a 1/4 cup of water.

shave with a cup of water heated on the stove.

shower with about a gallon of water(modified sponge bath)

wash pans by boiling water in them and dumping water into dog food.

gray water is so little it can evaporate on a cookie sheet daily.

not for every one, but I call it fun to see how little I really need.

Larry C_13

Water lawn as needed or weekly

Water the lawn only once a week. Set mower to leave grass height at 3".

jp_2

why water lawn at all!

my father never watered the lawn, it got brown in the summer but never died in the 40 years he lived here.

watering grass is excess.....

Larry Weingarten

and...

1. Get rid of the lawn
2. Check toilet flappers periodically
3. Test piping for leaks either with a pressure gauge or by watching the meter.
4. Install "structured plumbing" for hot water distribution.

Yours, Larry

Tim_41

Install hot water recirc pump. I just put one in our house because I moved the water tank. On average, we save 10gals per day now that we don't have to wait for hot water. Received major points with the better half also.

jp_2

larry

whats "structured plumbing"?

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Sounds rather like the seasoned full-timers in the RV/camping/travel group I work work for. Many will spend 3-4 months in the desert in places like "Slab City" near Niland, CA (look it up for an interesting read--free rent in southern CA). When you live with only the water you can hold in your tanks and the nearest tap is a few miles away, you learn just how little water you can live with...

Steve Ebels_3

Here's another one

Do like Bush did and install an underground cistern to catch all rainwater off the roof and sidewalks. Use it for watering the lawn.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

gerry gill

how about

move where the water is!! we live on the great lakes..we use the water..it goes back to the lake..we use it again, and again..isn't that recycling?

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bob young

DO like the French.....don't shower at all.

Bob Sweet

Hot water recircs

depending on how they are used they "might" be conservation minded . If they are run 24/7 they are nothing but an energy hawg. Use a timer? OK.

Our city govt. gives an incentive to install them with the label of "Green". Imo, they are not. You might save water but you will definately suck up the gas without the timer.

Use it when you need it, any other time shut it off. Think smart not green.

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[Deleted User]

Consider Xeriscape

Google THAT!

ME

Darrell

Give the teenagers change of address cards...

Seriously, I have several green minded customers that make a date every year for me to come in and check/repair every fixture and appliance in the house...for a couple of hundred bucks they have no worries that get in the way of fishing their retirement away, and they figure the savings in water alone pays for me.

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Supply House Rick

Shower with wallies

yummmmmy

Glen

turn off water at main -

issue family and friends personalized galvanized buckets for fetching water from nearest source. I have talked to many acquaintances that have returned from exchanges to Africa and south America - we are truly spoiled here in NA. Water is a coveted luxury overseas.
Seriously though - installing a water meter and charging for the supply works. A brown lawn is not a bad thing.

Kal Row

what are you guys talking about...

4 5ths of this planet is covered by water, we need to process it and deliver it, i flush my 1.6gal toilet 10 times to insure that the s't is out'da'house!!!, so instead of a one time 3gal flush for my old toilet, so much for the EPA - all the conservation in the world is not going to help the inner cities, we need a national water grid now, and solar powered treatment plants like the Saudis have, imagine that - with all the oil - they are using solar - we should be ashamed of ourselves!!!

As for you guys out there, install yourself a micro wall mount sink in you master bath, and use it as a urinal, works out to 8oz per flush, and real easy to keep clean

Rich Kontny_3

Install a radio controlled

Solenoid on the hot side of your water heater so after 5-6 minutes you can shut the water off when the above mentioned teenagers think they are at a water park when they are in the shower. The solenoid saves many trips to the basement and the payback is about a week.

We had four teenagers at one time in our house (many trips to the basement)

Rich K.

Rich Kontny_3

Why not

Right out the window Kal?

Tim_41

Its on a timer for sure. Morning, mid morning and eveing. We don't use much wattage at all.

Steamhead (in transit)

Kal......

put in a Gerber Viper and you won't have to flush more than once. Gordon and I have tried our best to get a Viper to stop up, and failed.

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Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

I put in a

Sterling .8 gallon dual flush that works great. None of my friends have been able to clog it and I have had it in for over a year now. The cheap toilets from the large discount stores may not work well, but the quality toilets from a plumbing supply store, do work. Thanks to everyone for all your help, it looks like it may be 15 or 20 tips. I'm going to use the shower with a friend tip, Steamhead, the Commission has grown to expect that stuff from me.

Thanks again, Bob Gagnon

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[Deleted User]

Although it may be covered with water....

Less that 1/2 of 1 percent is available for direct consumption without treatment, and that includes ALL water within the confines of the Earth.

I can see a day when wars wil be fought over water, not oil. Man can live without oil. I'd like to see him live without water...

The scariest part of all of this is that less than 15 years ago, that number was at 2%...

Water, our MOST PRECIOUS resource...

ME

D107

some have said it's not the initial flush that clogs

but as kal said, getting it all out to the street through all the piping can be problematic. I've heard plumbers say this, especially in old houses where the waste line may be pitted, or in cases where there's a long horizontal run towards the house trap.

I have a 1924 house, and in the month that we've had a Toto in our downstairs bathroom, no problems.......

David

Supply House Rick

Great Lakes and the rest of the world

The Great Lakes hold 21% of all the fresh water in the world and contain 84% of the United States fresh water.

Nearly one in five people or 1.1 billion men, women and children have no access to fresh water, according to the U.N., while a staggering 2.4 billion lack adequate sanitation.

Larry Weingarten

JP

Hello JP: Structured plumbing is essentially a loop of pipe run around the house, from and to the water heater. There is a demand controlled pump, so when you want hot water a push button or motion sensor turns on the pump to charge the insulated loop with hot water. From there, instead of branch lines, there are "twigs" going to each point of use. If the main loop is well placed, you get hot water at any tap wasting no more than a cup of water. This gives hot water fast and wastes little energy or water to do it. If you Google "Gary Klein structured plumbing" you'll find three articles he's written giving useful details. Figures I've seen suggest a family can save roughly 14,000 gallons a year with this.

Yours, Larry

jp_2

best way , i agree

larry, I think thats the best way too, a push button is best motion sensor next best.

Kal Row

ok, we will exchage water for oil with saudies

Steamhead (in transit)

Better toilets

carry waste farther in soil piping, and other wastewater helps move it along from there. We have a Viper and a Toto Drake going into old CI soil piping at our shop, never had the piping stop up either.

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