Living on the Great Lakes where the lake levels are up after several down years. Still watch our water use, such as rarely watering the lawn, mega loads in the laundry, although there is only two of us, so mega is relative, try to conserve whenever possible.
Way back in this thread, someone asked about on-demand water heaters - does anyone have any experience, or did I skip over that discussion? We have a summer-only cottage on Lake Huron where I would love to install an on-demand water heater, although it would have to be electric as we have no natural gas or propane.
We’ve never had a lawn and have never watered our yard, so there’s no place to conserve there! I think there’s supposed to be an underground stream under our property. I’m pretty sure the biggest savings by far is not to have DD living here this summer.
I am stretching out time between sheet and towel changes, esp. DH’s home towels since he mostly showers at the gym. I just agitate longer. I also try not to launder something after only wearing it once. I’ve always done full loads, but I try now not to make them too full because that just leads to a double rinse. We use shower warm up water to flush the toilet as well as laundry rinse water that my husband hauls up from the basement since we now have four huge buckets. I think this mitigates the fact that we have a top loader (love my Speed Queen!!!) and ancient water using toilet. This now means that I have to space out doing laundry until all that rinsed water is used which puts a bit of a cramp on my laundry style. I don’t want to replace our 85 year old or so toilet because with a plumbing system so old all kinds of weird problems can crop up and parts are difficult to track down.
My most recent contribution to water conservation: I bought 3 extra sets of running skirts, socks, and tops. Now I can wash my exercise clothes less often, only when the dirty pile gets big.
A BIG heads-up for those who are putting in tree bark mulch in the southern California area: you could well be importing Polyphagous shot hole borer (PSHB) into your yard. This is a pest that bores into trees, weakening and then killing them. The dead trees are cut down, sent through a chipper, and then added to mulch. The load of free mulch from your neighbor’s yard or your city–even the mulch from commercial suppliers–can be contaminated by the pest, which isn’t killed by chipping.
We’ve been told to ask any mulch supplier about what they do about PSHB, and if they look confused to not use their product. Unfortunately, this seems to be pretty much every mulch supplier right now. The other option is to get organic mulch, spread it out on a sheet of thick plastic, cover it tightly with another sheet of thick plastic, and then allow it to bake in the sun for 4-6 weeks. That will kill off the PSHB, and you’ll have sterilized mulch ready to use when planting season starts up in the fall.
CC SiteObsessed, we have a speed queen too but, after a horrible experience with a front load (described somewhere on this forum), I have no regrets. But, how do you use water from elsewhere (i.e. shower) to rinse clothes in your washer? I’d be up for doing that if I knew how.
Our yard is all drip so water caught in the showers, while waiting for it to get warm,
is saved for the dog’s bowl…nothing else has hit that logical/reasonable sweet spot yet.
Slithey, we have no need for bark but thank’s for the heads up – Yuck!
@UMDAD my parents (who live in Northern Michigan) have an instant hot water heater. When we redo our bathroom in a few years, that is one my “must adds” and I absolutely love it. What would you like to know?
SlitheyTove, I remember when I moved to So. Cal. in 2001 this was a huge problem that, apparently, still persists. I’m not sure that the S.F. Bay Area, where we now reside, is PSHB free. I’m going to ask my landscape person about this when I meet with her this Friday. Thanks for the info.
@romanigypsyeyes - we would like to get one of those and spoke to our plumber about it. He said that the electric fired units were not very effective and the gas ones were better. He also said you need a big gas supply line to the unit, not just your standard 1" diameter pipe. I guess when you fire it up it needs lots of juice for that short time period. Does your parents’ experience bear that out?
I am feeling very ‘dirty’ next to all you 1 use shower towel people! I also have hard water and a glass door, I keep a hand towel from my prior towel set through the shower door handle & wipe down with that. We hang up one towel on a bar, spread it out to dry, and we put the other one across the tub rim, not perfect, but it does not take that long to dry. I think I wash the bath towels every week or two, no more frequent than one week, but sometimes I stretch it more. We live in the PNW, so a bit damp, but still they rarely smell.
We built a house on acreage and did an unpermitted grey water diversion for the laundry, illegal because their could be waste products, but since it was watering a horse pasture which had a plenty supply of, um, waste products, we thought it was smart.
“DH and I are doing all the ‘easy’ things like taking shorter showers, running larger (but fewer) loads of laundry”
we do not have a drought, never had it. However, I do not take showers at home, I take it at my gym, I do not put my clothes in dirty if it is not dirty. On the other hand, I do not think that these activities consume as much water as our lawn. I cannot (would not be allowed by neighbors, probably) to stop watering my lawn. But you do not have one. So, if the shower is the most water that you use, join the gym and take you showers there. And wear clothes as long as possible without washing. Use only disposable plates, cups, silver wear and better eat only out, so that you do not need to consume water to cook.
In regard to changing sheets, if you take shower every day, they are staying clean. I change them when I remember to change, but I am lazy, it has nothing to do with conserving the water. We do regular laundry once in 2 weeks and my loads are big as you can imagine but I still separate into lighter and darker and some people do not do that…
A shower is a “fraction” of what an average lawn uses. For example, a shower is (likely) 1 spray head @ 2.5 gallons per minute. A lawn has MULTIPLE spray heads at roughly the same output.
Just spoke to EBMUD (East Bay Municipal Utility District) today, our water company up here in the S.F. Bay Area, regarding our lawn conversion rebate of about $1,900.00 for around 2,500 s.f. being converted. Turns out in order to receive the rebate you must have a “functioning” lawn. In other words, to receive a rebate for saving water you must first waste a lot of water in order that your grass isn’t dead. (Since they don’t come out anytime soon, I will end up wasting a lot more water than I originally intended, since I currently have stopped watering the lawns altogether.) Don’t use that line on the phone rep should you call them about this. Mine did not appreciate this statement. He probably hears it way too often!
Our designer is redesigning our 5 lawn areas using gravel in 4 of the areas and mulch in the 5th area. Gravel! Did they say gravel??? I would NOT have thought of using it but the way she did the initial redesign and incorporating additional plants and trees, I have to admit it looks pretty darn good. It will be 3/8" in size, crushed not smooth, and it’s called Black and Tan. Our designer likes crushed because she said it “interlocks” when it goes down. The 3/8" looks more natural and is easier to walk on than the 3/4" size rock.
Two thumbs up on crushed gravel. Round stuff will have a tendency to scatter like frozen peas. Gravel looks good in landscaping if placed in the right spots! We have a mix of that, some bark covered space (mostly covered with mature conifers now), big boulders, and some dry “riverbeds” made of river rock, which I sifted out of the fill dirt used to terrace our backyard. I designed the yard myself, and to my surprise, folks liked it and have been asking for references. No, I don’t do landscaping for living.
I went to the nursery today. I couldn’t bring myself to buy anything.
Our dogs hate our gravel walkways. They won’t walk on it and instead walk in the planted areas. Though I have seen some really nice newly drought favorable landscapes which use gravel.
I do not like small gravel as it gets in people’s shoes and they bring it into the house.
H always wants it but I will only accept larger, preferably river rock size.
But, nonetheless, this is a new age and things will need to be accepted.
I imagine that artificial turf will become OK also.
It might be interesting to see what is developed over the next few years.
It is not just California that will be hit, though perhaps the hardest.
My kid is more aware of the drought now that she is working in the Bay area and she has told me she is cutting her shower short. I couldn’t believe my ears.
The other option is to get organic mulch, spread it out on a sheet of thick plastic, cover it tightly with another sheet of thick plastic, and then allow it to bake in the sun for 4-6 weeks. That will kill off the PSHB, and you’ll have sterilized mulch ready to use when planting season starts up in the fall.