GreenBuild Blog
Monday, March 15, 2010
Going Green at Home by Saving Water
The Green Plumbers start out with a 50-question survey about water use, look at your water bills and measure the actual flow rates from each faucet. After a few days, they delivered a comprehensive and very accurate report on household water use and gave a series of recommendations for saving about 15 percent on household water use. Given that more than half my use if for irrigation of numerous trees and shrubs, the recommendations were practical and actionable. In fact, the very first thing I had them do was to install a recirculating hot water loop with a timer, so that we can have “instant” hot water during the morning hours, instead of waiting two minutes (and wasting five gallons of water) for the cold water to become hot. Now we’re looking at installing a gray water reuse system, so that the laundry water can go to watering shrubs and trees instead of just going down the sewer. Arizona law is very good on this subject, too, since household gray water reuse systems don’t require any kind of special permit. Also on the agenda this year, a new water-saving dishwasher that hopefully will qualify for one of the nice $250 rebates that Arizona is going to offer, beginning April 12th. We’ve already installed low-flow showerheads and dual-flush toilets, among other water-efficiency devices, so our water use was below normal, for a two-person household. Outdoors I’m collecting rainwater in two 200-gallon tanks from the front roof of the house and plan to add an even bigger tank later this year to collect water from the back roof.
Posted by Jerry on 03/15/2010 at 02:28 PM
This entry has been viewed 99 times.
PermalinkFriday, March 12, 2010
Keynoting Australia’s Green Cities 2010 Conference
You can email me to get a copy of the presentation. Basically, I pointed out that Architecture 2030 goals call for saving 80 percent of a building’s energy use compared with 2005 averages, but that most LEED certified projects are hitting about the 30 percent level, far below where we need to be to see a major reduction of carbon emissions from the building sector. I suggested that projects that don’t hit their predicted energy goals have their scores reduced to levels consistent with actual performance and, if they fall below minimum LEED performance standards, have their certification revoked. This would bring “truth in advertising” to LEED certification and lead design/construction teams to be more realistic about securing energy performance in new construction. My host Romilly Madew, CEO of the GBCA, emailed me later, saying: “the feedback from your session was fantastic; people talked about all the take-away’s they got from your talk.”
Posted by Jerry on 03/12/2010 at 12:57 PM
This entry has been viewed 130 times.
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