California's Water - Residential

In this series on California's water crisis I've talked about both environmental and agricultural uses of water.  This time I want to talk about water use in the home, after all this is where you and I can save water and make a real difference.

Before I can detail some ways to save water around the house, it's important to understand where water goes in a typical home.  From a high level standpoint we can make two distinctions, outdoor and indoor water use.  Studies of water use of a lot of different homes have found that in a typical American home 75% of all water use is outdoors - the bulk of which goes to landscaping.  So if you want to save the most water start on the outside of your house.

Below is a list of a lot of great tips to save water.  Some of these are easy and cheap to do and others are expensive and/or hard to do. It's up to you to do what you can to save water - so even if you pick the easy ones you're still helping the overall crisis.

• Reduce the amount of watering done on your landscaping.  Water for shorter periods of time, water every X number of days, etc.
• Water at the optimal time of day, usually early in the morning before the heat and wind of the afternoon.  This minimizes loss due to evaporation.
• Use drip irrigation lines where possible.
• Install and use timers on your sprinklers.  This eliminates the hassle of having to remember to turn it off and on, allows you to control exactly how much water is being used, and helps you to control what days and times watering occurs.  In other words, it's a win all around.
• Use a soil moisture meter and only water when the ground needs it.
• Consider installing drought tolerant landscaping.  After all, the grasses, bushes, and trees most of us have in our yards are not native to California and require EXTENSIVE amounts of water to keep it alive.
• If you use a hose to wash off the exterior of your house, sidewalks, and/or driveways then use other methods such as a cobweb duster and broom.

Another great tip is to avoid washing your car at home and instead use an automated car wash.  But beware, not all car washes are created equal.  Those small units attached to gas stations can use as much, or more, water compared to a typical home car wash.  The key is to find a place that exclusively does car washes and uses water saving practices.  Such a place will recycle water between washing, as well as filtering out oil, dirt, and detergent to keep them out of the sewer and storm drains.  Unfortunately there really isn't a way to tell if a car wash does all this or is actually using more water than washing at home.  You can always ask or check their website - but they may not say.  Barring that I would suggest using the newest dedicated car wash you can find.  Newer facilities will have to comply with newer ordinances about water use so you're more likely to find a place that will save water.  Another tip, "touchless" car wash machines use more water than a conventional car wash.  So don't be afraid of a conventional car wash machine - after all if you wash at home don't you touch your car?


In the next post I'll cover water use inside the home.