Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Sustainable Water usage and Water saving devices in Houses



Sustainable Water usage and Water saving devices in Houses

Abstract:
This paper describes possibilities and personal experiences with water saving and sustainable water usage in small houses.

Keywords:
Small House, Water saving devices, Rain Water usage, Rain water storage, Rain water pipes, Ideas for small devices.

A. Introduction
Clean water is a scare resource in the 21st Century – sustainable people and sustainability students are aware of this fact. This is valid for most regions of the world, but not necessarily for all regions of the globe. For instance in my region in the north of Germany clean water is abundant – that means that water coming out of the water tap is clear and pure enough to be drinking quality (authorities make sure that it is tested regularly – but this will be the topic of another blog).

However it is of importance to address the question, whether it is possible to reduce the amount of clear drinking water in daily use for cases such as washing dishes, showering, watering the garden, flushing the toilet, cleaning the car or other items of your household.

B. Rainwater collection and usage
To put it at the first possible choice:
Whenever you live in regions, in which precipitation is high enough to create bigger amounts of water in barrels or specialized cisterns, go for that solution.
Benefits of the use of rainwater:
- it is free,
- it is available in huge amounts (where applicable).

Drawbacks of the use of rainwater:
- You need barrels/cisterns and these require space in your garden (either above ground or underground).
- You require machines that can handle rain water (washing machines, dish washers, etc.) – these are normally much more expensive. That does not apply for toilets.
- You require extra rainwater pipes in your house that pipe water from the barrel/cistern into the desired machine – therefore you need extra space and money for the installation of these rainwater pipes.

C. Small devices/ideas for saving clear freshwater
Some small devices and ideas however are rather cheap and thereby you can easily save between 20 and 50 % of the freshwater you are using:
- Flow reducers: small plastic or metal flow reducers can be screwed in front of all water tabs: these reduce the water output between 15 and 50 % depending on the mesh size you are applying (cost: about 2-3 Euros/US$ per reducer).
- Flow reducers in your shower: different producers are offering different shower types with different reducing capabilities – so you can reduce the amount of water you are using by help of these shower reducers: other smart ideas: choose showers over full baths, cut shower time down, stop the shower (stop running water) when you do not need it…
- Content reducers for your toilet flush: a rather old fashioned but rather effective idea – simply put in some (brick-) stones in the water reservoir – by doing so the volume of water in your toilet tank is reduced by the volume of the stone put inside – when flushed it fills up less the next time compared to the volume without stone(s).
- Likewise useful are stop buttons at the toilet flush – so you can stop the amount of water flushed down, when applicable.

D. Conclusion
Benefit of all small ideas: you save clear and pure freshwater, your water bill will be reduced.
Rainwater collection is an important puzzle part of sustainable living, however you need funding and space for implementing it. However saving water and using water saving devices is rather easy and straightforward – so everybody can do something and keep spreading the ideas. Hopefully more and more households are going to save valuable freshwater…

References:
Wikipedia.org, “water tap” as of 25 September 2012                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Dr. Carsten Weerth

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