Water Usage

[XA Coupsta]

I hope this is a fairly relevant topic to post - I'd like to know if any members of the board have taken/are taking steps to help limit their water consumption?

I guess what I'm looking for is us to share ideas - so that we can all then learn and perhaps implement what someone else might be doing to make water consumption less.

Where I am at is the beginning of the process of getting a rainwater tank in the back yard - nothing special. But surely there are other ways I can save water???

The water situation in our country is looking pretty bleak.

Does anyone agree that as a society/country - that we need to rethink our water usage??

Personally (I'm not looking to get flamed here) - I think we do need to have a good hard look at why we water our lawns and gardens. We have this luxury of being able to turn a tap on and get clean water, and we go and 'waste' it on making our lawns look nice and green.

Its a tough issue - because I also understand by having trees/plants, etc this also serves a purpose of giving us oxygen!

I would by no way believe I am a greenie or extreme conservationist - but with our current water plight and our outlook on it - I think we need to really wonder is a green lawn or beautiful garden worth wasting water upon? Can our water situation sustain this?

Furthermore - there are people in other countries who walk vast distances to firstly get to a water point, which then supply's dirty/unhygenic water anyway. And here we are using perfect water for watering our lawns/gardens/etc.

XA Coupsta

ps - you can pick my house in the street coz it has the brownest lawns and trees that are near death (ok its not that bad! yet.....)

We only use a watering can to water essential (expensive) plants, don't wash the car, or if i do i use a water pressure cleaner. At the moment I cant see us having a water catch system, although now that i think of it, it would be pretty fun building the thing up...

[4.9 EF Futura]

Absolutely. I havent taken huge measures to limit consumption, I just make a conscious effort not to waste the stuff. My housemate and I are fairly easy on the water anyways and would use a fraction compared to, say, a family with 2.3 kids.

So i'll just carry oin as is. We dont have level 2 restrictions in SA anymore - they are called "Permanent water conservation measures"... not too bad and fairly easy to comply with. I dont imagine they will be changed anytime soon, seeing as last week the NSW and Vic farmers were given the go ahead to start taking massive amounts of water from the murray again. But living in SA all your life, you get used to the eastern states having their way.

Our resevoirs are up around 75% at the moment, but I understand Sydney is in a dire situation?

[TheSneakiness]

In QLD, well in Maroochy Shire anyway, any new house that gets built is to have a compulsory rainwater tank.

I think that everyone should have rainwater tanks, just think, you won't have to pay rates on water... however, when you're in a situation like me and have FA water right now, the only time you have to pay for it is when you need to order it.

[KEV EB XR8]

Think this a great thread for all mate.
[/LEFT]Our town water supply cost us a fortune to run in when we built, approximatly 300mtrs, from the road to the house as we are on 3 acres.

Thinking ahead we had our plumbing from the bath, laundry sink and gutters all directed to a 10,000ltr tank, and the sewerage albeit is pumped back to the main, but bio-cycle filtered exess is used to slow release in the paddock.I have two 3 car garages which also have a separate tank. The cost of this exersise came to $ 3,800.00 in which i did most of the plumbing.

Town water is only used for showers,drinking and amentities.

Main tank is used for watering,washing cars etc.

Shed tank pump fills the animal water troughs,vegetable garden and shed amenities.
Our town water bill is approximatly $65.00 per quarter

I cant tell you how much we save truthfully, but it makes me feel good that i have made a small contribution.

Cheers Kevin

[vino3o2]

Great post XA Coupsta!! I think It's apsolutly important for everyone to play thier part in water coservation. Alot of people take it for granted that there will always be clean drinking water whenever you turn on the tap. It really bothers me seeing people waisting tap water on thier lawns or gardens, why can't they set up a grey water system, you get most of the $$$'s back from the government. The elderly people are notorious for garden water waistage....they need to be better educated...anyway, theres my rant...

[Thornie]

I did a little bit by changing the shower head in our bathroom to a water saver one, the old one i had flowed water like there was no tomorrow

[XA Coupsta]

Cheers for the enthusiastic attitudes!

Hey Vino you talk about grey water - so thats like your waste water from washing machine - what else does it cover? Dishwasher? Bath water (I have two young kids - and in the interest of saving water they take a small bath together)? What else qualifies as grey water do you know?

And......how would one go about plumbing their house to capture this grey water?

Lets keep the momentum going here and get some ideas for us all to use.

Kev EB XR 8 - mate what you have done is super impressive. Well done to you.

[DOC]

Originally Posted by XA Coupsta

Lets keep the momentum going here and get some ideas for us all to use.

XA Coupster here's one for you if you like, i am about to introduce a new product that is claimed as a water saver so if you would like to test it out on your ride and give some feedback that would be great, just pm me your delivery details and i send it of for you.

This is an incredible product. It has taken the US and Canada by Storm and has an almost cult following on the internet. Australian users are just starting to experience this product. EVERY Household should wash their car with Quick and Easy Wash. It saves masses of water and is brilliant in water restrictions. You will never wash your car with a hose again !

the kit comes with wash, mitt and chamois.

[GTP 320]

In Victoria,every new house that is being built also has to have a compolsory rain water tank.
And good to see our water levels are up to 60% (Melbourne)
Cheers John

[Dave_au]

The the most effective way to save water was if everyone had a bath or just spent a few minutes less in the shower each day.

Think about it - when you washed you car, when it was legal - at least in Sydney, you would have had the hose going on the car for what - probably 2 minutes, maybe 3. How often does the average person wash their car - once every three or four weeks?

How often do you shower? Most likely every day. How often are you under there for - 10 minutes? How long was the fastest shower you've ever had to take - 2 or 3 minutes?

Haha, on to toilets! here's a great water saving rhyme (not one that I follow though): If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down.

[bindi]

I have washed the cars only two or three times this year - using the obligatory watering can (although before the last cruise I washed the EA at the local high pressure car wash _).

I went to the local plumber supplier shop and got two water restricters, both restricting water flow on both our showers to 9L a minute. These screw on in between the shower arm and the shower head and cost $15 each. And now I get the family to have showers every second day and restrict the use of the bath.

I have a hose attached to the washing machine wastewater hose and use it to water the grass and plants out the back.

I don't water the garden unless things are seriously starting to die (we need plants to keep our planet alive after all) and have used water saving crystals on the garden to help absorb the rain water (instead of the water running off and into the stormwater drains). I am looking into large containers for storing rainwater as well (my mum uses them to collect the water and dad put taps on the bottom of them to access the water).

Any plants that do not survive, I pull them up and replace them with more drought tolerant plants. Don't be fooled into thinking this means Australian natives as some are fussier than introduced species!

I also compost anything in our household that is biodegradable and use the composted materials on the garden along with mulches etc to stop evaporation.

[MrAUII]

I am a greenkeeper for a lawn bowls club and to be honest the water restrictions here in SA are a complete waste of time. Why do i say this? well simply because it does absoloutely nothing to make you reduce your water usage. All we are allowed to do is water between certain hours of the day, and not have use a certain amount of water. I do my best to use as little water as possible, havnt used any for watering since May thanks to the rain. It should be compulsory for every new house to not have a crappy 3 modular rainwater tank but huge *** underground tanks like my mate has which all rain from his house roof goes into. He then uses it all for his house and garden. His last water bill for 12months cost him $17

[XLS99 Ute man]

Originally Posted by RaTTuS

I did a little bit by changing the shower head in our bathroom to a water saver one, the old one i had flowed water like there was no tomorrow

my dad did this too, but i took it off and pulled the little rubber rings out, i cant stand having a shower when there is no pressure!
and he thinks we are saving money Haha

[Thornie]

theres plenty of pressure it just doesnt flow the 600 litres a minute that it used to.

[XLS99 Ute man]

yeah but its just like having broadband then going back to dial up
i need water pressure!
nothing worse on a cold morning, when there aint comin out the nozzle

[bindi]

Originally Posted by XLS99 Ute man

yeah but its just like having broadband then going back to dial up
i need water pressure!
nothing worse on a cold morning, when there aint comin out the nozzle

That's why I didn't go for a water saver shower head per se. I got those water restrictors and then bought 2 of the biggest shower heads I have ever seen in my LIFE So the water is not big on pressure, but the water from the shower covers your entire body all nice and hot.

Those water saver shower heads are ridiculous, they come out fast but in such a thin stream that your little pinky on your left hand gets wet while the rest of your body is freezing...

[vino3o2]

Here is the some info on "grey water" systems.....
http://www.enviro-friendly.com/greyw...ustralia.shtml

[4.9 EF Futura]

There was an incredible show on the weather channel last night about Sydney's rain fall. Apparantley is gets something along the lines of 200% of london's annual rainfall. The annual average in Sydney is supposedly more than enough to support its 4 million residents... but unfortunatley it all ends up going down the drain and out into the ocean.

Interesting stuff.

[brenx]

Originally Posted by GTP 320

In Victoria,every new house that is being built also has to have a compolsory rain water tank.
And good to see our water levels are up to 60% (Melbourne)
Cheers John

When did that come in? I have a relatively new house and no water tank.

[brenx]

Originally Posted by 4.9 EF Futura

There was an incredible show on the weather channel last night about Sydney's rain fall. Apparantley is gets something along the lines of 200% of london's annual rainfall. The annual average in Sydney is supposedly more than enough to support its 4 million residents... but unfortunatley it all ends up going down the drain and out into the ocean.

Interesting stuff.

NSW's catchment wasn't very well placed. Victoria's much the same. No catchments in the most flooded areas.

Originally Posted by brenx

NSW's catchment wasn't very well placed. Victoria's much the same. No catchments in the most flooded areas.

Lol try telling that to the guys who went on the NSW Backroads run... The roads in Warragamba may well have been rivers feeding the dam.

Yeah I agree, we gotta do a lot more with the catchment of water. What does everyone think of the proposed desalinisation plant for Kurnell?

[brenx]

Originally Posted by ArgonEF

Lol try telling that to the guys who went on the NSW Backroads run... The roads in Warragamba may well have been rivers.

It's no good on the road. It's needs to be in the catchment otherwise it's wasted water.

[Panda]

I currently recycle the water from the washing machine. The pipe from the washing machine runs to a 44 Gallon drum and I pump it out of there with a submersible sump pump. Can you believe the washing machine fills up the drum every load? That's about 200 litres per load.

Anyway, next house I will direct all of the grey water (sink / dishwasher / showers / bath / basins / washing machine) to a bigger tank and use that exclusively for the lawns and gardens. Might even have another tank to store the rainwater and use that as well.

No point using chlorinated water on the grass, waste of money and a drain on infrastructure.

Panda

[Blue Oval Mopar Man]

We Are lucky here I guess . No water restrictions at all. Wash our cars , water our lawns . put the sprinkler on for the kids to run amok under , any old time of the day or month!