Archive for the ‘Water use’ Category
May 4th, 2009
Gravity Feed Water Filters
Stumble it!
About a year ago, we installed a reverse osmosis water filter in our home. We weren’t particularly concerned about any specific contaminant, but just wanted to make sure we were drinking and cooking with safe, clean water. In this last year, we’re not as happy about the water filter as we thought we’d be. First of all, we don’t have the correct pressure in our household pipes to adequately pump our water through the filter system, so the water practically trickles out. We leave a pitcher under the faucet to let it fill while we’re doing other things. Second, reverse osmosis filters waste about 3-4 gallons of water for every gallon of filtered water it creates. That’s not very efficient! And lastly, we’re a bit dismayed that the filter takes out all the good and beneficial minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium. We have other friends who add natural sea salt back into their water to make up for that, but we’re not willing to drink salty water. (more…)
Popularity: 3% [?]
May 1st, 2009
The Rundown On Smart Irrigation Controllers
In many parts of the country, we’re going to be in for a dry, dry summer this year. Huge swaths of the country are already in drought territory, and for many areas summertime doesn’t offer much hope for change.
Increasing demands on scarce water resources will almost certainly lead to lower caps on water usage (and even rationing in some areas) and/or higher water rates to stimulate conservation efforts. Many Californians are already facing the prospect of higher water rates this year - Los Angeles just announced a 15% reduction in the amount of water that a family can use before triggering higher “second tier” water rates, AND a major increase of those second tier rates as compared to last year.
Over-watering of lawns and gardens is usually one of the greatest sources of water waste. There are many reasons why: some people apply too much water, water at the wrong times thereby increasing evaporation, or don’t adjust their sprinklers and end up watering the street / driveway instead.
One of the best ways to control irrigation water use is to use “smart” irrigation controllers. They not only save you money, but they’ll save an incredible amount of hassle by taking the guesswork out of setting your irrigation schedule correctly. In many water-starved parts of the country your local water agency might offer rebates on these systems, sometimes nearly paying for the entire controller!
Smart controllers come in a couple of flavors: controllers that monitor the conditions in your yard (soil moisture, etc) and set irrigation accordingly, and controllers that base your irrigation schedule on weather data received from satellite, radio or internet feeds. Here’s a run-down on some of the best options available right now.
Weather-Based Irrigation Controllers
Cyber-Rain XCI. The Cyber-Rain XCI system hooks up to your computer and downloads weather reports from the Internet. If it’s an especially hot/sunny day, irrigation times will be increased. Cool and cloudy? Times are reduced. And if rain’s in the forecast, the XCI will stop irrigation for 24 hours. The XCI also does other cool stuff like calculating before/after savings and enabling you to develop simple zone descriptions that anyone can understand - and all via wireless connection direct to your computer. It’s a bit on the pricey side at $399, but if you have a big yard with lots of zones it’s well worth it.
Irritrol SmartDial Controllers. Irritrol SmartDial controllers adjust your irrigation based on weather conditions and evapotranspiration data from the day before, so your plants are truly getting only what they need. The data for these controllers is downloaded daily from a satellite, and you’ll probably have to spring for a data subscription (usually less than $100 / year). The cost of the entry-level six-zone controller will be around $225.
Sensor-Based Irrigation Controllers
Hunter Pro-C With Solar Sync. Hunter’s Solar Sync system nearly does it all - it measures rainfall, temperature and solar radiation, and then adjusts your irrigation schedule accordingly. It even delays your irrigation program if it detects there’s a freezing risk. The system requires three parts: The Solar Sync outdoor sensor and calculation module (purchased as a unit), and a Hunter irrigation controller such as the Pro-C. If you are starting from scratch, the entire unit should cost around $250 ($125 each for Solar Sync and Pro-C controller).
Weathermatic Smartline. The Weathermatic Smartline system along with the optional SLW On-Site Weather Station monitors temperature and rainfall and, coupled with an internal database of solar radiation in your area, will adjust your irrigation levels accordingly. The controller will set you back about $120, and the weather station another $150 or so.
All of these models have been tested under a third-party testing program of the Irrigation Association called the Smart Water Application Technologies protocal, or SWAT. You can review the individual testing reports for each of these (and more) models here.
Popularity: 3% [?]
April 30th, 2009
Restaurants Offer a New Kind of (Greener) Bottled Water
When Americans dine out we typically want to have a special experience, indulging in food and drink that we wouldn’t enjoy at home. We’ll order a pricey bottle of a mighty cab that we might never buy at the wine store or we might order a chocolate soufflé knowing full well that we’ll never make such a dessert in our own kitchen.
And so it makes sense that many of us find the concept of purified—instead of bottled water—difficult to swallow.
While a growing number of restaurants across the country are beginning to serve purified water, eschewing the bottled stuff that eats up massive amounts of fossil fuel getting here from exotic spots such as Italy or Fiji, many Americans continue to be hoodwinked by the perceived status and purity of bottled water, oftentimes leaving facts and the health of the environment to swirl down the drain.
In Chicago, green restaurateur Shawn McClain and his trio of restaurants, including Green Zebra and its exquisite vegetarian dishes and Spring’s evolved fare, stopped stocking bottled water and began offering Natura, an Italian based water purification system. While Natura’s process improves the flavor and purity of water, many diners scoff at paying extra for H20 that doesn’t come in a disposable bottle—regardless of whether it tastes any better or is more pure.
But the fact is that the purifier and others like it often creates water that’s more pure and refreshing than that found in a sealed bottle. Natura’s system involves active carbon filters and a UV radiation chamber which remove bacteria and eliminates impurities and offers the final refreshing dose of water in a dishwasher safe, reusable bottle. In essence, diners get the look and feel of bottled water without the environmental cost. And there’s plenty of research sprinkled across the Internet that shows that tap water bests many bottled waters when it comes to flavor and quality—even New York City tap water.
It’s a given that our bottled water habit is wreaking environmental devastation. Walk along a city street—or a beach nearly anywhere—and you’re likely to see an improperly disposed bottle of water washing ashore. And the bottle you’re likely to see is merely one of billions per year that we Americans empty and toss aside in a year.
Worldwide some 2.7 million tons of plastic are used to bottle water each year, and much of this ends up in landfills, sluicing along inland waterways, rolling across intersections or bobbing in the Texas-sized island of misfit plastic waste bobbing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Ordering locally produced and purified water makes perfect green sense. In fact, if we’re more serious about addressing the critical environmental issues raised by our consumption of bottled water, we would be willing to pay extra for such water, much as we do for organic produce.
Ordering purified water in restaurants is a good first step toward breaking the bottled water habit, demonstrating that it’s neither trendy nor smart to order bottled water.
Popularity: 3% [?]
April 29th, 2009
The Last Straw for Bottled Water?
We certainly hope so! We’ve written before about the horrible environmental impact of bottled water– and now we’re glad to see that new health evidence may further help people decide to chuck their bottled water habits.
Did you know that Americans send over 35 billion water bottles a year to landfills? And it takes about 1.5 million barrels of oil to make those bottles, so it is an environmental double whammy. (By the way that’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for a year!)
Now on to the health bit. New research coming out of Germany shows that PET plastics (the clear plastic most often used to make water bottles) may also harbor hormone-disrupting chemicals that leach into the water. According to Discovery News, it seems that some as-yet unidentified chemicals in these plastics can interfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones, just as the infamous plasticizers BPAand phthalates do. Read the full article here.
Make the switch! Tap water is where it’s at! And get a stainless steel bottle to take it with you.
Popularity: 3% [?]
March 28th, 2009
Steps To A Water Neutral Home
If you’re one of those folks out there who is suffering from a bit of carbon fatigue, then a post in the NY Times’ Green Inc. blog this week could either provide additional motivation for green projects or increased fear of another jargon-laden debate. Green Inc highlighted the growing trend of striving for “water neutrality”, as highlighted at the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul last week.
The idea is gaining ground within a group of companies looking to understand and reduce their consumption of water, including Coca Cola, whose chairman has pledged to eventually balance out all of the water used in its products and manufacturing processes through conservation elsewhere (over 80 billion gallons worth!).
This got me to thinking: what would it take to be water-neutral in our own homes, meaning that we don’t import any net water? If we include all of the water that goes into our food and the products we consume, then it gets ugly real fast (see this post on the water content of food, for example). But what about our direct water use - showers, irrigation, toilets, etc?
Now, this would require some significant changes to a home and to local building/health/safety codes, since the only way to go water-neutral is to reuse graywater and harvest/store rainwater. Both of these options now face numerous permitting and legal obstacles around the country (including some pretty counterintuitive ones, like Utah and Colorado bans on capturing ANY rainwater at your home). Assuming we could, though, how much rain would it take to provide a family’s annual water needs?
After some pretty simple calculations, it turns out that the home of a typical family of three could be water-neutral in climates receiving roughly 25″ of rainfall or more per year under the following assumptions:
- Three-person household;
- Rainwater captured, stored and reused;
- Graywater system used;
- Indoor water efficiency measures employed: low-flow showerheads, toilets, faucets and appliances;
- Outdoor water efficiency measures employed: smart irrigation control, rain shutoff, soil moisture sensors, climate-compatible landscaping.
This basically means that home water neutrality is feasible if you live in the Midwest, anywhere along the US Atlantic or Gulf Coasts, in the Northwest and in higher rainfall areas of the West and Mountain West (here’s a set of maps to review for your area). The detailed calculations are shown below. You can use our Environmental Impact Calculator to make similar calculations for your home and region.
Popularity: 9% [?]
