101 in 1001-- Item #94-- Reduce our Water Use

Why I chose this Goal: Water is a key resource and also a controllable monthly expense. Saving water in drought-torn Southern California is good for the environment and also my bank account.

What I did: This was pretty easy. I put some water saving technology to work.

1- Repairs: Fix the leaks, drips and singing toilet. This wasn't too hard. Just a wrench and a toilet repair kit.

2- Showers: I replaced our shower heads with 1.6 gpm shower heads. Talk about stimulating! No longer does BMO take those 15-20 minute showers. The pressure of these nozzles gets him in and out in less than 5 minutes.

3- Sinks: I replaced all the aerators on our sinks with 2.0 gpm ones. Less water gets used for everyday needs.

4- Yard sprinklers. They were set to go off at 8:30 for 5 minutes 3 times a week. With the warm weather I am resetting them to a 6:15 start up for 6 minutes four times a week. Earlier watering times will soak in better with less evaporation. With no rain expected until next fall the plants will need a little extra to survive the hot and dry summer.

5- Cut Grass at a taller height. Letting the grass grow at a taller height keeps down evaporation loss and crowds out weeds (less chemicals on the lawn). Taller grass means less watering! (it doesn't mean letting your grass grow a foot and a half tall!!!).

6- Toilets: I added a liter jug filled with water into each tank. This means for every flush we use 1 qt less of water. It adds up!

7- Peak hours: This doesn't really affect how much water we use but it does affect electricity use. Off hours means lower energy costs.

8- Dishwasher: We don't rinse and scrub our plates as much before putting them in and we run only full loads in the evenings only.

9- Laundry: We do laundry only two days a week and always in the evenings or on weekends. Using our new water saving/ energy efficient front loaders we do only full loads.

How much water will we save?

This was our usage rates ( sort of hard since they (sometimes) estimate stuff every other month...)

Dec 2007 16 HCF (Hundred Cubic Feet)
Jan 2008 13 HCF
Feb 2008 06 HCF
Mar 2008 10 HCF
Apr 2008 10 HCF

that averages 11 HCF per month.... let's check again in a few months and see where we are after these changes.