Day 92 of our Green Year: Collecting Shower Water

We had a great idea for a green tip from one of our readers, Eryn, yesterday, and it involves collecting shower water in a way neither Layla or I have thought of.
When we start up the shower, we usually let it run for about 30 seconds while we wait for it to get to the temperature that we want it. You don't want to step in a cold shower, but you don't want it too hot either.

There is nothing wrong with this, but it does waste water and that is a problem. As our loyal readers know, we have already limited our showers to only five minutes to save water, but we can go a step further to make that 30 second of water running does not waste anything.
Therefore, what we are going to be doing at our house, as part of Our Green Year, is putting a bucket in the shower when we start it up.

Sitting the bucket under the faucet, we will be able to collected that previously wasted wasted water in the bucket. Then, we can take that water out following the shower and put it in the garden to help the plants.
Naturally, you will want to take that bucket out when you shower or else you may get shampoo or soap in it, which could pollute the garden's soil.

Thanks Eryn for the great tip! If you have some tips for us, or pictures of you doing green things, send them to crwbaird@gmail.com

Day 26 of our Green Year: Limiting Our Showers

Wow, only a few days before we hit our first month of Our Green Year. Things are going well, we have our story in The Province (the largest paper in British Columbia) tomorrow, and we have been getting a lot of hits from Treehugger.com, so it is nice to be mentioned there as well.

Today, we decided to save some water, and the best way to do that is by limiting your showers. Typically, people will take a 10 to 15 min shower, and this wastes about 150 to 250 liters of water each time. Now, it is entirely feasible to have a shower, get yourself clean and wash your hair in five minutes, and when you do this you save 75 to 175 liters of water as a result. That may not seem like much, but here is a quick little lesson on water wasting:

• If you have a 20 min shower, you waste 300 liters of water. Multiply that over a week and you waste 2,100 liters of water. Multiply that over one year, and you waste 100,800 liters of water!
• If you have a 10 min shower, you waste 150 liters of water. Multiply that over a week and you have 1,050 liters of water. Multiply that over one year and you waste 50,400 liters of water.
• Now, if you have a five minute shower, then you use 75 liters of water. Multiply that over a week and you get 525 liters of water. Multiply that over one year and you will only use 25,200 liters. In fact, a five minute shower per day for a MONTH will use the same amount of water used in a 20 minute shower per day for a WEEK.
  

The water savings, which translate into money savings for you, amounts to 75,600 liters of water saved a year if you switch from a 20 minute shower to a five minute shower.
In our own house, we averaged 15 min showers, which came to 225 liters of water. Each day that meant we used 450 liters of water for the shower, which comes to 151,200 liters of water. Switching to five minute showers will save 145,800 liters of water each year here.

To ensure we follow this, we have bought an egg timer that will allow us to know when our five minutes is up.

Some more tips for saving water in the shower is to put a bucket in the shower with you. Let it fill up, then use that bucket to water your garden. Do not leave it in the shower if you are washing your hair or using soap.
You can also only shower a few times a week, like every second day. If you do that, you cut as much as 57 percent on your water.
Don't forget about showering together, that can save water too!