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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