ways to save water and cut cour daily living cost

[deborahwilliams]

Knowing ways to conserve water is very important for Southern California due to water shortages currently and water levels are still dropping because of dropped rainfall levels and other factors, the cost of living has shot up to the moon, could any one suggest how do we conserve water and cut down costs?

[minnie1928]

I purchased a few of these for our bathrooms:

RoadRunner 1.59 GPM Showerhead

I installed them about a year ago along with adding aerators to the faucets. I like the showerhead in particular because by using less water that means that you have to heat less water too.

[Aleta]

I live in Florida and we went through a drought last year with water restrictions on watering the lawns, car washes, etc.

One suggestion that came up was rain barrels. They had and I believe still do have classes, and a chance to purchase the barrels at a lower cost. Some people prefer to make their own.

We were also encouraged to collect water from running water from showers, kitchen faucets and to use it to flush with. Sometimes you are running your water to rinse off itmes or to wait for hot water to come out and mean while it's going down the sink. I learned to use that water for my plants outside.

[RedThunderBird]

aleta , as you know water is very abundant now [ lake Okeechobee is almost 12 feet ] but what I do is collect rain water in barrels , and use it for my garden === also take showers instead of baths , among other things , so you know how important is to save water ==== very good for your idea I thought i was the only one saving water , I am glad that I am not ==== we need to push pressure in our representatives in Tallahassee , so they don't keep on flushing fresh water in to the sea , and instead reroute it into the everglades

[tmvijai]

Water is precious natural resource. I learned in my childhood in India when we had droughts every 5 or 6 years in our state. Here many take it for granted and run the sprinklers the whole day sometimes. I don't like people wasting the water.

I myself tried to conserve the water by reducnig the usage. I only take 5 mins shower, reduce the flush to use only min quantity of water to flush, don't open the faucet and leave the water running during shower, only water every other day during all season except summer and one more thing use an airator in your faucets to reduce the water coming out. These simple things can save lot of water which not many do in their daily lives.

[MomEsq]

One thing to think about is your toilet(s). New toilets use far less water for flushing: 1.6 gallons, as opposed to as much as 5 gallons for older models! (We have really old toilets in our house and replacing them is high on the home improvement list) For instant water reduction, you can drop a small weight into the tank to displace some of the water -reducing the amount needed to refill the tank after each flush. A brick works great. Toilets can also leak from the tank -adding to water loss. Add a small amount of food coloring to your tank. If the food coloring finds its way into the bowl, you've got a leak. Check with a handyperson or plumber about fixing one of those.

[cptacek]

This is very extreme, so it might not work for everyone. We didn't do this to save water, but instead because the cold water would not come out of the bathroom tub faucet for some reason. The hot water did, though. So, we would fill up half of a 5 gal bucket of cold water in the kitchen sink, carry it to the shower and fill it up the rest of the way with the hot water. We then used a big plastic mixing bowl with a handle to pour it over our heads.

I know I could get through a shower for less than 5 gallons, including shampoo, conditioner, and body washing. Shaving my legs took a little more, but if your water got down to the 1/4 of the bucket or so, you could put a little more hot in there and get you by.

I know, very extreme. And once we got the cold water line fixed, we didn't do that any more. But, that would save on water.

I agree about the rain barrels. I've never tried a brick, but I have filled some 1 liter pop bottles with water, put the cap on, and put that in the tank to displace water.