Reduce interior water consumption by installing low flow shower-heads, faucets, toilets, dishwasher, clothes washer and gray water reuse.
A low flow shower-head delivers water at the rate of 1 to 1.5 gallons per minute instead 3 to 5 gallons per minute. Low-flow shower-heads conserve water by restricting the flow of water through small apertures and creating a high-velocity spray by forcing compressed air into the water stream. Greenyour.com (http://www.greenyour.com/home/bathroom/shower/tips/buy-a-low-flow-showerhead.) estimates a low flow shower-head could save 15 to 20 gallons per shower.
A low-flow shower-head saves water and the energy it takes to heat hot water. Showers use 17% of all interior water. Installation of low-flow shower-heads for a family of three could reduce annual shower water usage from 12,000 to 6,000 gallons: 8.5% of interior use. Energy savings could be 500 kilowatt hours or 55 therms. Dollar savings could be $70 or more.
A low flow faucet delivers between 1 to 1.5 gallons per minute at normal pressures. Many old faucets have rates between 3 and 7 gallons per minute.
The flow rate is ultimately determined by the aerator the screw-on tip of the faucet. The aerator injects air into the water to deliver good rinsing performance with less water.
Faucets use 16% of all interior water. Installation of low flow faucets and/or aerators, for a family of three, could lower annual shower water usage from 11,000 to 5,500 gallons annually: an 8 % reduction of interior use.
A low-flow faucet saves water and the energy it takes to heat hot water. Energy savings could be 500 kilowatt hours or 55 therms. Dollar savings could be $70 or more.
A low-flow toilet uses 1 to 1.6 gallons of water per flush (gpf). Older toilets installed between 1980 and 1994 use about 3.5 gpf. Toilets installed before then require about 5 gpf.
Clearing a toilet bowl with one gallon per flush requires a hydrodynamic bowl shape bowl, a slippery bowl surface, and the strong flushing mechanism. One type of high efficiency toilet is the dual flush. Push one button and solid waste disappears, and there’s another for liquids. Solid waste is cleared with 1.6 gallons (6 liters) of water per flush, while urine is flushed away with half the water.
Toilets use 27% of all interior water use. Installation of low flow toilets, for a family of three, could lower annual toilet water usage from 20,000 to 10,000 gallons annually: a 13% reduction of all interior use.
Most dishwashers manufactured since 1994 use 7 to 10 gallons of water per cycle, while older machines use 8 to15 gallons. New dishwasher designs have reduced water use by including more-efficient washing cycles and controls that allow you to tailor each wash to the specific characteristics of the load.
ENERGY STAR dishwashers use 6 gallons or less per cycle. Surprisingly, dishwashers use less water than hand-washing if the dishes loaded into the machine are only scraped and not pre-rinsed.
Approximately 80% of the energy used by dishwashers goes toward heating the water. Booster heaters in the dishwasher heat the incoming hot household water (usually 120o F) to the 140o F required for efficient washing. Using water at 120o instead of 140o saves energy. For every 10 degrees a water heater’s thermostat is lowered, the water-heating bill drops by up to 13 percent.
ENERGY STAR dishwashers uses 1,800 gallons per year less of incoming hot water, which would require 14 therms of natural gas or 280 kWh of electricity to heat. In addition, ENERGY STAR dishwashers save 0.5 kilowatt hour (kWh) of operating electricity for each load as compared with a conventional dishwasher.
Dishwashers use 5% of all interior water use. Installation of a low flow dishwasher, used every day, could lower annual water usage from 3,600 to 1,800 gallons annually: a 2.5 % reduction of all interior use. Annual energy savings of $50 or more could be realized by replacing a 10-year-old dishwasher with an ENERGY STAR qualified model. In addition, an ENERGY STAR dishwasher can save $40 in energy costs as compared to hand-washing.
A conventional top-loading clothes washer with a central agitator uses around 40 gallons of water per load. By contrast front-loading washers, which don’t have a central agitator and are loaded through a door on the front of the machine, use around 20 gallons. By using less water front loaders also require less detergent.
Wash-water heating accounts for 85 to 90 percent of the electricity needed to do an average load of laundry. Front-loaders use half the hot water of a top-loader.
The process of spinning clothes on a horizontal axis of a front-loader consumes nearly 50 percent less energy than is required by top-loading machines. In addition, front-loaders spin more water out of the clothes, which means that they also save on the energy needed to dry the clothes.
Clothes washers use 20% of all interior water use. Replacement of top-loading machine with a front-loading machine could lower annual water usage from 14.000 to 7,000 gallons annually: a 10 % reduction of all interior use.
Annual energy savings of 300-600 kWh or more could be realized by replacing a 10-year-old clothes washer with an ENERGY STAR qualified model. Dollar savings for hot water heating and electricity to run the machine are in the range of $45 to $90 annually.
Gray water recycling is the reuse of water from showers, bathtubs, laundry and sinks. The water is commonly recycled for outdoor irrigation or toilet flushing. Greasy kitchen sink water is not usually used. Toilet waste (called black water) is not included in gray water.
Gray water recycling systems basically consist of a particle filter, storage tank, and a pump. Additional plumbing is necessary to route the water from bath or laundry, through the storage tank and filter, and finally to the backyard or toilet tank for reuse.
Gray water is usable because it has low levels of contamination mostly from soaps and detergents. The use of green non-toxic household products is advised to keep contamination levels low.
Gray water is relatively high in nitrogen and phosphorous (from detergents). These are two of the three main components of fertilizers, so for the right kinds of plants graywater can be a major benefit. Citrus trees are a good example. Be careful here, though – some acid-loving types of plants (e.g. gardenias) cannot tolerate high levels of alkaline detergents.
It is best to apply gray water in a below-ground drip irrigation system, and on ornamentals rather than veggie gardens. However, gray water is OK for watering home orchards.
About one-third to one-half of all interior water may be recycled as gray water. A gray water system might save a household 30,000 gallons of water use annually. This amounts to 17% of the 180,000 gallons of total use (interior plus yard).
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