One-FIFTH the water!

[bennelson]

Hey everyone,

At my house, instead of sewer or septic tank, we have a "holding tank", which is just a big tank in the ground. When it's full, I have to call the pumper truck, and pay them to suck out the waste-water and take it to the treatment plant.

I just got a notice in with my electric bill, that for people getting their water through the city (same utility company, but I am JUST OUTSIDE the city, thus, no sewer...) can expect an increase in the cost of their water bill.

As a percent, it's sort of a steep increase, but in actual dollars, it's not that much.

What I found interesting is what they used for an example of the cost increase. In the letter, it says "for an average residential customer.... who uses 5,000 gallons of water monthly..."

My holding tank measures 2,000 gallons. We get it emptied every two months. That means the average residential customer uses 10,000 gallons (5K x 2 months) for every 2,000 that I use!

WOW! The average customer in my area uses FIVE TIMES as much water as I do!

Now, of course, that's an average. Some people use more, some people use less. We have 3 persons in my household, some houses will have 6, some will have 1.

But think about it. What if we all used 80% less water? What if we all used 80% less electricity? 4 out of 5 power plants wouldn't be needed!

What if we used 80% less gasoline?

Anyways, I'm pretty happy that by controlling my water use, I can save considerably on my waste-water bill.

Of course not everyone flushes their toilet with laundry water!

[Frank Lee]

In every online news story about energy where commentary is allowed, the article and the rubes commenting all concentrate on the supply side- more nukes, more coal, more wind, more transmission lines, more everything. Bring up the fact that households today use way, way more power than they did even a short decade or two ago and that conservation efforts are in order and in fact are pretty painless and easy to do, and prepare to be marginalized, ridiculed, or ignored. :/

Works for water and, well, every consumable too.

[nemo]

And if too many people conserve they just raise the base rate or add a fee so you end up paying more for less.

[darcane]

One thing to keep in mind, probably not all of your water goes to the holding tank...

Watering the lawn/flowers/etc or washing the car for example. Granted, you may use far less than average here too, but it will likely skew the "5x" figure to more like "4x to 3x"

[toc]

You could skew the results even more run the waste water from everything but toilets through underground irrigation type lines.

Then only the toilet flushes would be in the holding tank.

I'd check on the viability and legality of this before attempting it in your area though.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by darcane

One thing to keep in mind, probably not all of your water goes to the holding tank...

Watering the lawn/flowers/etc or washing the car for example. Granted, you may use far less than average here too, but it will likely skew the "5x" figure to more like "4x to 3x"

I knew somebody would question that. But, no I really do hardly use any water outside the house. I NEVER water the lawn or flowers and only water the garden if it would otherwise be drought. Car washing is pretty minimal. When I do wash my car, I typically go to the carwash, that prevents dirty wash-water and soap running down my driveway, straight into the lake!

[Ryland]

My water bill is in cubic feet of water, we tend to use 600 to 700 cubic feet every 3 months coming out to 1,600 to 1,800 per month of water used, coming in to the house for 3 people to use for cooking and washing, we just got our first washing machine and it's not even hooked up, but I suspect that number will start going up.
Unlike Ben, I do water the garden because our soil is sand, but I have 500 gallons of rain water that I use first and the only tap water I use is for a little apple tree, 5 to 10 gallons per day hauled with a bucket.

My house has 3 adults, two low flow toilets (1.28 gpf and a 1.1/1.6 dual flush), low flow shower heads and we try not to let the water run while washing dishes or brushing teeth, I personally have a juice glass that I fill half way with water to brush my teeth with, half a cup of water is plenty, but my basic water saving rule is, don't turn a faucet on if the drain is open, if you always plug the drain or put a container under the faucet then you can see how much water you are using.

[Frank Lee]

I have my own well and the septic has a drain field so whatever water gets used goes right back and the only real waste is for electricity for the pump. Even so I don't engage in water wasting habits i.e. running the sink faucet the entire time to do dishes (unbelieveable how common that one is! )

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I have my own well and the septic has a drain field so whatever water gets used goes right back and the only real waste is for electricity for the pump.

Even with your own well, the well pump is one of the larger electrical uses in the house and 2/3 of the water that the average person is using is heated water, so even with a well you are still using a good chunk of energy.
One of the biggest lessons in water conservation was living off the grid with a hand pump and heating all of our water on the stove top, just because of the easy of letting water flow over something and down the drain allowed for a great deal of waste, being able to take a bath in 5 gallons of water instead of using a 2.5 gpm shower head, not wanting to waste dish water because it would mean filling the kettle and heating it up again.
having water there on demand, under pressure allows for a great deal of waste.

[Frank Lee]

I'd wager I don't use 2/3 hot water. Plus I have a gas water heater and it uses so little that during the furnace-off months practically the entire bill is for the monthly service fee.

P.S. Looking at a recent gas bill shows $4.22 worth of gas but then add in all the B.S. (7 different items that even the person I called at the gas company didn't know what they were) and it triples to $13.09.

It would be interesting to see how much electricity the well pump uses. I put a nice big surge tank on the system years ago so it doesn't kick on/off until a fairly decent pressure drop occurs.

Still, the electric coop is p***ing me off with rate hikes to the point where I'm considering going off the grid. I'd have to fit a hand pump to the well and I'd have to come up with an alternative to the forced air furnace, which I'm not that fond of anyway. The biggest electricity consumer in my house is the fridge, with over half the useage every month. I suppose I could do away with it and eat out a lot more.

P.S. Looking at some billing statements... the actual electricity I use/month at 9.6 cents/kwh is only 1/3 of the total bill, the other 2/3 being facilities charge, renewable energy surcharge, and tax.