The 0.3 cubic metres per day looks really exciting but is actually probably that low because the previous bill was overestimated.
It still means that we are holding steady at 0.6 cubic metres which is a huge improvement over before (1.1 in Feb last year!!).
This works out to 200L of water per person per day (0.6 cubic metres is 600L - 3 people in our house). So in terms of the Riot for Austerity we are at 60% of the Canadian average (335L of water per person per day). Still a long way to go but I think having the new toilets is going to help a lot. After that its going to get a little trickier (especially because one person in the house is not participating).
If you are curious to see what your usage is in litres, you can use this handy conversion tool.
To reduce our usage we have done the following so far:
- Take navy showers
- Practice selective flushing
- Just generally be conscious of the water we use
2 comments:
Hi Rachel,
do you also have a saving water shower head? I am assuming you do, but if not, time to go to that 'Re-store' place... :-)
I believe they also exist for kitchen and bathroom sinks. I am pretty sure we had those when we lived in Ottawa.
Another topic that comes to mind: using 'green' detergent. Have you ever tried the 'indian nuts' ( I think that's what they are called) to do the laundry?
They are special nuts that become soaping when placed in the water and you can wash your laundry with it. It has the advantage of being completely natural. I tried it and it worked alright for me. A friend of mine tried it and had some mixed results, especially with her dirty kids t-shirts...
Anyway, food for thought...
Sophie :-)
Hey Sophie,
More good tips again! :-)
Re: showerheads, I have been looking into getting a 1 gpm one from a company called Bricor. We have a standard low flow shower head in both our apartment and our tenant's apartment but they are still 2.5gpm (9.5L per minute).
I *think* we have aerators on all the other taps in the house but I'm going to check to make sure.
So funny you mention soap nuts. I lived in India for a number of months and often used them while I was there to wash my hair. I loved how they smelled but didn't love picking the bits of nut out of my hair!
I have heard they are good for laundry though and I know that for the Ottawa folks who are interested, they are available at Planet Botanix.
I have been using liquid laundry soap from Nature Clean. I get my bottle refilled at Arbour Environmental Shoppe. I am reluctant to switch to soap nuts because of the carbon cost from getting them from India to North America. But I am now wondering how far the ingredients in my Nature Clean stuff have to travel. I'm going to look into it.
:-)
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