Welcome back, everyone!
In this post, I'll be talking about statistics for my own home, ways we can cut down on water usage, and how foreign nations can help us understand what we can do back home.
The main goal for the 5th week was to take all of the data that I found and relate it to the current usage to see how they compare.
This post may be a little more vague and about all sorts of stuff because I'm still working with my advisors to make that comparison. I also created the abstract for my project. "What is an abstract" you ask? Well let me tell you! When you read a scientific article of any sort (c'mon, I know all of you have subscriptions to
Scientific American), the first thing you see is the abstract. Essentially, it is an introduction, summary, and background to the study, why it was conducted, what they discovered, what they did (method), and what they concluded. Well, I did just that, and after I polish it, I'll submit it here!
Anywho, going on to the meat of this week, Ms. Vaughan and I had a little trouble tying it all together so I consulted my dearest father. What follows is what we came up with as to what steps I should take. Since we weren't 100% on the
domestic water usage amount yet (the average data I gave you in the 1st week included domestic
and commercial uses), I hope to talk to Robin Harrington, city water utilities extraordinaire, to get current data.
To continue, although we can't assume that our
own house represents the average roof size for the city, we decided to use it for this week's purposes since we already have a fully-functional rainwater harvesting system installed. Also, since we can access our monthly usage since 2012, I can compare that to the city's average and look at how rain harvesting has impacted our overall usage. So, to start, the total amount of rainwater we could have harvested in 2014 is
22,287.9 gallons.
Though that does seem like a whole lot of water, the average household in the city could have collected
24,736 gallons. Now, that's how much we can collect but don't because of storage issues--though we can fill almost to our full capacity on just one storm. Which brings up another issue: practicality. There are two things to consider: how many tanks and where. There is a balance between having too few tanks--thus not storing enough--and having too large of a tank--never collecting to full capacity and having wasted space (and money). A harvesting guide I have used has information on how to estimate how much tank space you need based on roof size (don't fret, I'll cover that soon). The other issue is space. As shown in the last post, even just 1000 gallon tanks are pretty big and people may not have the yard space to put the amount they need. One idea I had is to put it under the ground or the house (more useful if you're in the early stages of building and incorporating it into the initial plans). Just food for thought. Have any other ideas? Feel free to share them in the comments!
Anyways, the data for the amount of water used per month since February 2012 is as follows:
| Billing Periods | Number of Days | Daily Usage | Total Usage |
| 02/2015 | 30 | 119.33 | 3,580.00 |
| 01/2015 | 29 | 100.00 | 2,900.00 |
| 12/2014 | 32 | 118.75 | 3,800.00 |
| 11/2014 | 31 | 109.03 | 3,380.00 |
| 10/2014 | 28 | 107.14 | 3,000.00 |
| 09/2014 | 38 | 114.47 | 4,350.00 |
| 08/2014 | 30 | 84.00 | 2,520.00 |
| 07/2014 | 29 | 158.62 | 4,600.00 |
| 06/2014 | 34 | 146.18 | 4,970.00 |
| 05/2014 | 28 | 130.00 | 3,640.00 |
| 04/2014 | 30 | 106.67 | 3,200.00 |
| 03/2014 | 28 | 130.71 | 3,660.00 |
| 02/2014 | 32 | 128.13 | 4,100.00 |
| 01/2014 | 31 | 54.19 | 1,680.00 |
| 12/2013 | 31 | 135.81 | 4,210.00 |
| 11/2013 | 29 | 124.83 | 3,620.00 |
| 10/2013 | 31 | 143.55 | 4,450.00 |
| 09/2013 | 28 | 142.61 | 3,993.00 |
| 08/2013 | 33 | 215.06 | 7,097.00 |
| 07/2013 | 30 | 504.33 | 15,130.00 |
| 06/2013 | 32 | 780.63 | 24,980.00 |
| 05/2013 | 36 | 259.17 | 9,330.00 |
| 04/2013 | 29 | 172.41 | 5,000.00 |
| 03/2013 | 28 | 146.79 | 4,110.00 |
| 02/2013 | 28 | 163.21 | 4,570.00 |
| 01/2013 | 36 | 116.94 | 4,210.00 |
| 12/2012 | 27 | 163.33 | 4,410.00 |
| 11/2012 | 35 | 206.00 | 7,210.00 |
| 10/2012 | 25 | 160.00 | 4,000.00 |
| 09/2012 | 31 | 150.97 | 4,680.00 |
| 08/2012 | 32 | 152.50 | 4,880.00 |
| 07/2012 | 30 | 348.00 | 10,440.00 |
| 06/2012 | 30 | 268.33 | 8,050.00 |
| 05/2012 | 32 | 199.38 | 6,380.00 |
| 04/2012 | 30 | 147.67 | 4,430.00 |
| 03/2012 | 28 | 148.21 | 4,150.00 |
| 02/2012 | 29 | 137.24 | 3,980.00 |
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According to the city, our average water usage per day was approximately 118 gallons. When I divided that by the number of humanoids living in our home (excluding the guinea pig, whose water consumption is negligible), I found that each of us used about 30 gallons per day. Now you may be thinking "wow that's a lot for one person!" Or you might think something different. You know, I'm not you. Regardless, I don't mean to toot my own horn here but think that is actually fairly impressive considering that, from what I heard, the average amount of water used daily per capita is close to 100 gallons. An optimal amount, however, would be about half of that.
Now to return to the graph, to break it up into another applicable form, we did not have a garden for most of 2012 (which explains the fairly moderate to low amount of water used). However, until September 2013, we did create a garden but had not yet installed a rainwater collection system. This explains the absurdly large amount of city water we used in June (almost 25,000 gallons). Finally, after installing the harvesting system in September of 2013, there is a drop in how much city water is used. All in all, this shows how rainwater harvesting can save a bucket load (ha!), especially economically. Incentives, people, incentives!
To put exact numbers, I took the average amount of water per day for the three years. Then I compared the periods before vs. after we installed the system.
Total Daily: 118 gals.
After installation Daily: 119 gals.
Before installation Daily: 233.7 gals.
Therefore, installing a rain harvesting system saved us 114.7 gallons per day. Again, incentives, I tell you! Furthermore, in 2014, we used 42,900 gallons of (city) water-- even with the rain harvesting system installed. To meet that amount with rainfall, it would have to rain approximately 35 inches throughout the year, which is even more than what Richard Hereford's report predicted (22 inches/ year). Let's consider this: we live in a desert. Yet many of us live like we live somewhere, well, that isn't a desert. If we had to move somewhere wetter to sustain this amount of consumption, a good option might be Seattle! Getting just under 40 inches a year, it is one of the wettest cities in the U.S. and would have more than enough to sustain that lifestyle.
But what if moving is not an option? How can we manage our water use more wisely and cut down on usage? Well, to quote my father, here are some ideas:
- Only flush "solids" and learn to live proudly with liquid wastes
- Shower only on days that don't start with the letters "S" and "T", and use a 5-gallon bucket to catch the grey water and use it to flush those solids
- Landscape the yard to maximize surface runoff from impervious landscape surfaces into garden areas
- Wash clothes only on days of the months that start with the letter "W"
- Wash all dishes by hand and use only biodegradable soap, then use rinse and wash water to water outdoor/indoor plants
- No car washing
- Use a cup of water to brush teeth
- The Terrific Ted
Some ideas I had:
- You don't need a cup of water to brush you teeth..
- Use a water filter in your fridge. That way, you don't need to waste a whole lot of water waiting for it to get cold
- Turn water off during taking showers when it is not a necessity (e.g. when applying soap)
Finally, regardless of what you might call it--the can, the porcelain throne, le loo--60% of household water everyday goes towards flushing the toilet. Since the Energy Policy Act of 1992, all standard toilets in the U.S. have to flow with 1.6 gallons or less--a 68% drop from the 5 gallons used before. Smart move, I must say. Regardless, if we cut back on how much water is used towards this household item (flushing less or using a lower flow) can have a major impact on daily water used.
After plugging in our roof size and Herefords predicted precipitation into the equation used in previous weeks (Rainfall (in)*0.623*roof/ catchment Area (ft^2)*runoff coefficient), I discovered that with our roof size (smaller than the average, mind you) and future precipitation based on Hereford's report, we can collect 26,649 gallons. This averages to about 74 gals. for the entire house per day and 18 gallons for each of us. Many of us may think it impossible to live off this amount of water each day but believe it or not, although this is only about 3 1/2 Home Depot buckets, this is the same amount of water as daily per capita consumption in Israel! This just goes to show how it is possible to live off a greatly reduced water budget. Finally, to wrap this post up, the average amount of water used per capita in the United Arab Emirates (which receives the same if not less precipitation than Israel) is 132 to 182 gallons per day. Holy cucamonga! They get little to no rainfall and yet use almost 9 times the amount of Israel! To be exact they consume 82% above the global average. They have the mula to continue in this way (desalinization), but it does not seem sustainable in my opinion...
Finally, if the average family in Flagstaff continues to use their current amount of daily water consumption, there will not be enough rainfall in the future to sustain that lifestyle (at least as a the only source). However, I believe that if citizens of Flagstaff alter and limit how they use their water, it is possible to sustain that way of life with rainwater harvesting. Also, I hope to put in the statistics I found last week to see if those predictions will also bring in enough rain.
Well, this concludes the first part of week 5. Again, this post might have been a bit off course but thank you all, again, for reading and I hope to hear from you in the comments! :)
-Lia
