Comments on: The Water Drought Is Here: Home Conservation Tips

By: Frugal Home Improvement Idea: Red Brick vs. High Efficiency Toilet | The Passive Dad

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:11:09 +0000

[...] Water drought. We are currently at 60% of normal rain and our water district has sent notice to customers that a new fee schedule may be adopted to encourage water rationing. What does this mean for our water bill? We don’t know. The rates may not go up this year, but they could in 2010. The Roi for the HET toilet could be more like 2-3 years. [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:30:10 +0000

@ MacNessa and Cyllya

I’ll have to revisit my thoughts on the dishwasher vs. hand washing again. I thought I was being super efficient with my “old fashioned” way of washing dishes and drying by hand. Thank for your links and I’ll research further.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:27:37 +0000

@ Brandon

I’d love to switch water rates with you. I currently pay $50 a month for water and it could be going up with this drought.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:39:50 +0000

We pay a flat rate here in Michigan, about $10 a month, and do not have a meter. A pretty good deal, but can lead to wastefulness.

By: MacNessa

MacNessa — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:46:25 +0000

Actually I believe handwashing uses more water. Plus these days you can install a ‘grey’ water system where by the water that your dishwasher/washing machine gets filtered of all the chemicals, and you can re-use the water for your garden etc A plus for the environment and your wallet.

By: Cyllya

Cyllya — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:19:41 +0000

The most water-efficient way to do dishes is with a dishwasher. They’ll also save money on medical bills.

http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/dishwashers.htm
http://www.bobvila.com/HowTo_Library/Dishwasher_Efficiency–T734.html

Here’s some tips on making it more efficient:
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/D/AE_dishwasher_efficiency_tips.html

I suppose you could also save on your own water bill by using disposable dishes or eating out, but that has other environmental/financial implications.

By: pfincome

pfincome — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 02:14:26 +0000

I try and take showers at my work during the week to save on water (I run at lunch so I do have an excuse). My wife and I will be installing shut off valves (not sure what they are called) on our shower in the next few weeks which helps a lot. We use our fish tank water on our indoor plants as well as any water that we use to boil.

I would also suggest raising the height of your lawn to over 3″ to save on water and use landscape plants that are native to your area.

By: Keith@DebtHacker

Keith@DebtHacker — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:21:29 +0000

I forget where I read/heard it, but I believe using the dishwasher actually uses less water… nevermind, just read Steph’s comment. Anyway, the rest are great ideas.

We have a rain barrel outside our house that we use for plant water. The only word of caution is keep an eye out for mosquitoes. If you’re constantly using the water from the barrel, you should be fine. But my wife and I were away for a week and came back to a nice swarm. Though after a quick drain, they went away.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:26:47 +0000

My wife and I have never been through a water drought, but she is of the “save the planet” type…so water conversation is important to her. Here in Michigan we have a lot of water, so it would be easy to be waste-ful, but she would never let that get by! I’m going to share some of your ideas with her, I’m never heard of a fake lawn, very cool!

By: Steph

Steph — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:51:33 +0000

Actually, washing dishes by hand used more water for us. We had our dishwasher break, and while other water usage stayed the same, our water bill went up $20. Once we replaced the dishwasher, the bill went back down.

I couldn’t stand to have the dirty dishes pile up, so I probably washed them at least two or three times a day. If you just wash them once, you might be okay. But watch out for bugs!