Water Use Efficiency-UPDATE, 5/23/09

Another little project of mine is seeing how much water I use and how to cut back on that (I know, I know, not something Rush would approve, or even think, of ... sadly enough). I noticed that my water usage increased last year when I retired. This makes some sense as I started spending more time at home flushing toilets, drinking water and generally using more resources at my own residence instead of at work. In fact, my water usage went up from 1283 gallons per month in 2007 to 1450 gallons per month in 2008 (I retired at the end of March, 2008). This is a 13% increase and it's probably more like 15-17% since I only had 3/4 of the year where I was home in 2008. As a part of that higher 1450 gallon average, I used 1800 gallons or more in three of the last six months of 2008, a trend that I didn't want to have continue.

My goal is to consistently be under 1000 gallons a month in water usage, with a challenge of 900 and a super challenge level of an 800 gallon per month limit. In terms of daily use limits, 1000 gallons per month equates to a bit less than 33 gallons per day, 900 gallons is about 29.5 gallons per day and 800 gallons is just over 26 gallons per day. My 2008 average of 1450 gallons per month was over 47 gallons of water per day.

Data will almost always provide the answers, if you have enough of it. So I started looking at how all that water was being used in my home. With standard toilets each flush was about 3 gallons of water at a rate of perhaps 9 or 10 times per day. So right there was 27-30 gallons per day. The clothes washer is a front loading high efficiency unit and some measurements via meter read show that it uses 10-25 gallons of water per load, depending on the size of the load and the wash cycle selected. By the same measuring method, a shower could easily take 15-25 gallons of water. The dishwasher, interestingly enough, uses only about 9 gallons of water for the entire cycle.

By my last water bill (March, 2009), water usage was down to 1200 gallons and it will go down further as I get better at this, but here are the conservation steps I've currently implemented:

1. Watering the lawn is out if water conservation is a serious goal, so that's something that's straightforward to do (and I've never done much of it anyway) but I may allow for a little of it from time to time if the grass is really dying. A better solution here may be to put in grass that is extremely hardy and so will easily survive (as much as 2 months) with little or no water.

2. Wait longer to do laundry. Since the washer is easily capable of handling very large loads of clothes, the logic is that it should take less water to do one large load than two smaller ones. This seems to be true and I find that I can easily do laundry every two weeks instead of every week, except the bedding is every week. OK, I will confess that I had to buy some extra underwear to make this one work ;) ...

3. Showers are now "sailor showers". This means that the water is on to wet down, then it is turned off while applying shampoo and soaping. The water is then turned back on to rinse. It's easily possible to take a shower with less than 5 gallons of water using this approach. A bonus here is that this significantly reduces the amount of hot water needed, saving (electricity and natural gas in my case) on running the water heater. Additionally, less time spent under hot water means less dry skin ... especially important for dry midwest winters. Also, when washing hands, it's not necessary to let the water run while the hands are not under the faucet, so turn it off while rubbing the soap in ... every ounce adds up.

4. Run the dishwasher only when it is completely full, in my case about 3 times a month instead of 4 or 5.

5. Install High Efficiency toilets, in my case, 2 toilets, Toto brand, Drake and Gwyneth models. These require 1.6 gallons and 1.3 gallons of water, respectively, per flush. This reduces the water for toilet usage to under 15 gallons per day. Also, it's not necessary to flush the toilet after every use so a few additional flushes can be saved. Installing the high efficiency toilets is no doubt the number one water saver in my home, certain to be even more helpful with a large family. I'm saving between 10 and 20 gallons of water per day with this change alone. If you're "flush" with cash or have really big water bills, look into installing a compost toilet. These are quite expensive for a good one, but water usage is zero and there is a great fertilizer benefit for your garden.

Results:
To test the efficacy of my water conservation steps, I've been collecting meter read data at the same time (9am) every day since March 19. After 20 days, I'm averaging 24.8 gallons per day of water use (about 756 gallons per month). This is well within my set goals and I'm happy with the results so far. It's really a fairly easy change to make in lifestyle (especially for a single guy living alone) but, like many things, one has to be intentional about doing it consistently. Like dieting, it will only last if it becomes a lifestyle choice. For families with children, there seem to be very good reasons why everyone should be taught conservation from an early age. In the long run, it is certainly going to be easier for individuals if they have "always done it that way" and it will definitely help both current and coming generations to have the planetary resources they need to live both comfortably and inconspicuously. Now that's being a good steward.

UPDATE: 4/19/09-After one month, I've used 718 gallons for an average of 23.2 gallons per day (31 days). This is less than 50% of my water usage (average per month) rate in 2008. Gratifying ... and I now see no reason why I shouldn't be able to consistently continue to achieve using 800 gallons per month or less (at least for those months when I don't have any company, which is most of the time, hehe).

UPDATE: 5/23/09-In the second month (as of 5/19/09) I used 662 gallons for an average daily use rate of 22.1 gallons per day (and 22.6 gallons per day over the running total of 61 days). With the exception of times when I have visitors, it now looks like it shouldn't be a problem to stay at between 22 and 24 gallons per day. This means that the (average month) upper limit on my usage of water should be around 30.5*24 or 732 gallons per month. I'm using just 50% of the water I used in 2008 ... gratifying and quite simple to do. All it has seemed to take is spending some time thinking about what I'm doing and then figuring out how to do it better. It did cost some for the new High Efficiency toilets but, as a single person household, I could've gotten by with only one new one instead of two. Otherwise, it's just being conscious about what it is I really need vs. what it is that I'm actually using. Try it ... you may like it.