Water Conservation: Low Flow Toilets

I am still basking in the glow of our astounding water challenge success. I am also humbled by the awareness that some of my neighbors and friends have been conserving their water better than we have for a long time. The big conclusion for me is that it is possible to use substantially less water through unremarkable changes: washing clothes less (and only washing full loads), showering a little less and taking navy showers, and not flushing the toilet every time.

There is more to this story, however. On November 7^th of last year (2014), my favorite neighborhood plumbers Heise’s Plumbing  came by and installed 2 low-flow shower heads and 2 low-flow toilets. Thanks to the SFPUC website, I can see how our water usage changed with these new fixtures.  

Check out the reduction in our household water usage from November to December last year! Our December bill spanned November 15 – December 12. During that period, we used an average of 80 gallons of water per day compared to 174 gallons the previous month. That is about a 55% decrease in water usage from one month to the next.

You can see from the chart above, that the real impact is not that extreme, but in the 3 months prior to the toilet installation, we used in the ballpark of 150 gallons of water per day for our family of 4. Previously I noted that our family was using approximately 33 gallons of water per day per person up until the Water Challenge began in March, which took into account lower water usage since the HE toilets installation.

I just looked at our averages through last November when the low flow toilets and showerheads went in. I discovered that, from November 2013 through November 2014, our average water use was a little higher – 37 gallons per person or 158 gallons for our household each day.

Since November when the new toilets and shower heads were installed, we used closer to 100 gallons of water per day. We reduced our household water use by 30% with absolutely no behavior change other than having new toilets and showerheads installed. We reduced our water consumption from approximately 35 gallons per person per day to 25 gallons per person per day, or a ~7% reduction in water usage per person x 4. Toilets matter!

The Dirty about the Toilets:

I installed the Toto Eco Drake – model #ST743E tank andmodel #C744E bowl. I purchased these on the recommendation of Heise’s because they said, “They work well.” I agree. They get the flushing done. This toilet gets good reviews by other users too.

The toilets are single flush as opposed to the dual pee/poo settings that flush as little as .9 gallons of water. My toilets have the WaterSense sticker on them, indicating that they don’t use more than 1.28 gallons per flush, which is the standard to be considered a High-Efficiency (HE)toilet. (Mine use 1.28 gallons per flush.)

From what I understand, a standard toilet uses 3.5 – 7 gallons of water per flush. Who knew? I think some of my neighbors did, but I guess I wasn’t really paying attention, and no one I know has been talking about gallons per flush. Let’s talk toilet! I am sorry I didn’t replace my toilets sooner. I believe the low-flow shower heads are using less water too, although I would guess the bulk of our new water conservation is due to the HE toilets.

Start-up Costs:

I paid $370 per toilet. In looking around a little online today, I see I could have bought the toilets myself for around $250 and then just paid Heise’s to install them for me. I could even have installed the toilets myself, which I believe is fairly easy to do. But, I am lazy, and I love finished projects. With labor included, the total cost of this project was $1,250. The City of San Francisco gave me a $125 rebate for each toilet ($300 total rebate) to bring that back down to $950.

In looking through my new, favorite website some more – the San Francisco Public Utilities website – I just discovered it is even possible for some San Francisco residents to have a new HE toilet installed at no cost. You can find rebate information on this site too.

As I was looking around to find the best new toilets, I came across the Maximum Performance MaP website that tests toilets. It is a good resource for selecting a new HE toilet.

 More Questions:

For anyone else out there obsessing over their toilets: How has the installation of a dual-flush HE toilet impacted your water use? Are you seeing even more extreme reductions in water use than I am?

Water Challenge: Utilities Bill Information

I have to admit, I haven't looked at our utilities bill for a long time. We pay our bill each month with an automated service, and my husband is the one who typically checks on our household bills. I quickly discovered that there is a lot of useful information here that allows me to drill down to our daily household water usage, how our water usage compares to the average San Franciscan, and numerous tips on how to use less water. I was really impressed with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission website.
Using their data, I determined that our average water usage from May 1 2014 - February 12 2015 has been less than the average 4-person household in San Francisco, which is 49 gallons per person per day. During that period we used 33 gallons per person per day. Go, us!

 However, being under this average, which is well below the average American's use, is still substantially higher than it could be. We are clearly above the world average water usage of 13 gallons per person per day.

What is really utilitarian about my utility bill is that since my water usage data are provided on a day-to-day basis, it is possible to determine the days my family used the most and least water, and we can track that usage to our behaviors on that day. For example, on February 4, we used 201 gallons. On that day, we were preparing to take off for the weekend, so I did a bunch of laundry, and we may have taken several showers too. This reminds me that we could probably do a better job of wearing our clothes multiple times before washing them. I know I am guilty of throwing things in the dirty clothes hamper too often.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has an informative website that provides data on overall water use in the USA, although their graph dates back to 1999.

My utilities bill brings up a couple additional thoughts. These data could be a tool of "social facilitation", a tendency for behavior to improve when in the presence of other people. Should we be talking about our water bills more and commenting on what we have done in the privacy of our own homes to decrease water usage? Perhaps if we generally had a better sense of how our neighbors use water, this knowledge could spur more efficient water usage through creating new norms.

I believe this is what the SFPUC is trying to do with their website data, conservation tips, incentives to replace shower heads and toilets, etc., but this has certainly been off my radar, and water usage has not been a hot topic in my community! I haven't started keeping a day-to-day diary of how we use water (e.g. # of loads of laundry, showers, baths, watering the garden), but this could assist in tracking daily water usage to particular behaviors. I will attempt to implement this for the remainder of our water challenge month to generate more ideas on how to use less water. Additionally, SFPUC offers free home evaluations. I will have that done in the near future and report on any additional ways to conserve water.

As for an update on the water challenge so far, we have used an average of 18 gallons of water per person per day since February 12! This is a reduction in our daily usage by about 45%. Interestingly the significant change in our household water use corresponds to the graph above showing that flushing the toilet and taking showers accounts for about 43% of domestic water use.

My husband and I think we can sustain our new practices, which is key, I think to permanently changing our ways. The changes we have made are small ones and don't impact us in any real way. Here is what we have succeeded in doing differently so far this month:

1. We are taking navy showers and not waiting for the water to heat up before showering. We may buy a tankless water heater to make our showers a bit more luxurious in the long term - warm instead of partially cold - but we have both found we don't feel like we are missing much to take substantially shorter showers. I am starting to think about a long soak as a treat and something to look forward to. Here is where the magic happens:

2. We have been flushing the toilet about every 3 pees. As long as we keep the lid closed, this has been no problem and not stinky. We haven't found our cat drinking the yellow water. Sometimes our kids forget about the water challenge and flush more often, but flushing has decreased.

 3. I have been collecting some of my used kitchen sink water - water I used to wash my hands or rinse a dish - and throwing it on my potted plants outside my kitchen window instead of collecting fresh water. So far so good.

4. I have only been running full loads of dishes and laundry, and we are doing a better job of wearing clothes 2-3 times before washing. I am trying to teach my kids to examine their clothes before tossing them in the hamper.

Finally, I would also like to know what is an equitable and sustainable quantity of water to use each day. This is complicated, but if anyone out there has a reasoned estimate, please let me know how many gallons of water each person on Earth could expect to have for daily use if, theoretically our planet's available fresh water was parsed equally and sustainably among 7.3 billion people. That is the goal I seek.

The Water Challenge: Be (More) Like Mozambique

 Mozambique appears to be the country using the least water per capita (as of 2006). In contrast to an average Mozambiquian’s use of 4 liters (~1 gallon) of water per day, the average American uses 575 liters (~152 gal) per day. Worldwide, an average Earth inhabitant uses/needs ~50 liters (~13 gallons) of water each day.

Quality of life is poor when a person has access to a mere 4 liters (1 gallon) of water each day. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recommend a minimum of 20 liters (~5gal.) of water for sufficient drinking water and personal hygiene and closer to 50 liters (~13 gallons) of water when factoring in bathing and laundry. (See p. 34 in the United Nations Development Programme report.) It turns out, people use a lot less water when they have to haul it around to use it.

 What would the average American need to give up to cut water use by about 90%? Perhaps we should imagine the effort it would take to transport our daily water on our backs every time we turn on the faucet.

My family will face “The Water Challenge” this month. Our family of 5 – 2 adults, 2 kids and 1 cat – will do everything we can to cut our water use. We will keep track of how we do by comparing our water bills ending in mid-February (typical usage month) to mid-March (challenge month). 

As we do the Water Challenge, we will record all the things we changed to try to reduce our water consumption. We will also comment as we go along on on how our new habits feel and whether we think we could maintain our new lifestyle. Our initial strategies include the following: 

*  "If it's yellow, it's mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." In the last couple days, we have peed ~ 3 times before flushing and kept the lid down so our cat won't drink the pretty yellow water. Reported new odors: no change when the lid is closed!

*  We are also trying out the "navy shower", which basically means, only let the water run to get wet and to rinse off. While soaping, shampooing, shaving, the water is turned off.

*  My husband and I have tried to not let the shower and sink water run until it warms up. This means, we have to be sweet to each other and take turns being the one receiving the cold shower. This also means that we are attempting to take our showers in a row to optimize the warm water. (After taking a cold shower, one starts to ponder the pros and cons of a tankless water heater too.)

*  Our kids are really excited about bathing less. We are all planning to shower about 2x per week - a little more than the traditional Saturday night soak.

We challenge you to join The Water Challenge! Let us know how you did, and give us more hints on how to use less water! I will add them as they come in. Our goal is to decrease our water use by at least 25% this month.

In the days to come, I will post "the data" about our household water use the last few months - pre- and post- low flow shower heads and toilets. I will be comparing our usage to the average San Franciscan too.