According to the EPA, at least 36 states anticipate local, regional or statewide water shortages by 2013. Fortunately, HGTVPro.com's comprehensive water conservation guide is preparing homeowners with tips from HGTV experts, along with information on products and corresponding installation instructions.
Here are some tips:
-- Store rainwater for your lawn and landscape with a rain barrel or rainwater pillow.
-- Installing a hot water circulation system is an easy and relatively inexpensive means of reducing the time it takes for shower/bath water to heat up, saving valuable gallons of water every year.
-- Revamp landscaping using native plants, which are drought-tolerant and require less water to maintain.
-- Invest in an advanced plumbing system to seriously crack down on water use, making the home more efficient.
-- Low-flow, water-saving toilets significantly reduce the amount of fresh water consumed and the corresponding amount of blackwater generated.
In addition to these general techniques, HGTVPro.com lists products to help make the conservation initiative a success:
-- NRGideas Series Shower heads flows at 1.5 gallons per minute (gpm) -- less than the required flow rate of 2.0 gpm by the EPA WaterSense criteria -- for the feel of a great shower without the high water usage.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
HGTVPro.com Helps Homeowners Save Water and Money With Brand New Water Conservation Guide
Monday, June 14, 2010
As Summer Heats Up, 10 Tips For Consumers to Keep Water Use Down
Summer is just around the corner, and as the temperature rises, so does water use, as Americans head outdoors to embrace time-honored summer rituals from washing the car to watering the lawn. In fact, according to the EPA's WaterSense program, water usage on a peak day in the average American home spikes to 1,000 gallons per day, compared to 260 gallons off-peak. American Water /quotes/comstock/13*!awk/quotes/nls/awk (AWK 20.10, +0.09, +0.45%) , the largest investor-owned U.S. water and wastewater utility company and a partner of EPA WaterSense, offers 10 easy tips consumers can follow* to reduce the environmental impact of their water habits both indoors and out.
-- Water your lawn only when it needs it. An easy test to tell if your lawn needs water is to simply walk across the grass. If you leave footprints, it's time to water. (An added benefit of watering less often is that fewer, deep-soaking waterings encourage deep root growth and stronger turf.)
-- Water in the early morning. As much as 30 percent of water can be lost to evaporation by watering during midday.
-- Set your lawn mower one notch higher to make your lawn more drought-tolerant.
-- Use drip irrigation hoses to water plants, and water in the early morning or evening.
-- Use a broom instead of a hose to clean your sidewalk, driveway, or patio.
-- Forego the hose and wash your car with a bucket and sponge instead. According to EPA WaterSense, a hose left running can waste as much as six gallons per minute while a bucket and sponge uses only a few gallons to do the job.
-- Keep a bottle of cold tap water in the refrigerator. You'll avoid the cost and environmental impact of bottled water and you'll have cold water available in the summer without running the faucet.
-- Run dishwashers and clothes washers only when they are full. If you have a water-saver cycle, use it.
-- Adjust the water level of your clothes washer so it matches your load size.
-- Regularly check your toilet, faucets and pipes for leaks and have them fixed promptly. An easy test for toilet leaks from EPA WaterSense: Place a drop of food coloring in the tank. If the color tints the water in the bowl without flushing, there's a leak.
The Curious Case of Mommyhood: Product Reviews
NRG’s Water Conservation Products ReviewWith summer time in full swing, water demands around the country are increasing. Perfect timing for my new review! I had the opportunity to review some of New Resources Group’s water conservation products. With so many products to choose from, NRG has products and tips for water conservation inside and outside your home. Below are the products we reviewed and our experiences with them:Buy it: As low as: $2.50
Shorter Shower sand timer helps you beat the clock and save! Simply turn the timer on its suction cup backing to know when five minutes are up. Save water and save money with this handy and durable conservation device. Perfect for getting into the habit of a quicker and more efficient shower. Blue housing standard with sand timer and shatter-proof plastic cover.Easy to install, the shower timer is a great reminder to only use the water necessary to shower. Absolutely every time I go to turn on the shower, I see the timer and am reminded not to let the water go unused but to hop right in as soon as the temperature is the way I want it. This product is very inexpensive too!Buy it: As low as: $4.98
Spray Clean fixed spray shower head in a chrome finish. Self cleaning and maintenance-free. Pass hand across thermo-plastic rubber jets to clean shower head as needed. The Spray Clean is engineered to deliver a great slower with surprisingly little water. Attractive chrome-plated finish fits in any décor. Non-removable Neoperl pressure compensating flow controller produces steady low flow rate no matter what the water pressure. Easy to clean thermo-plastic jets are perfect for areas with hard water. Easy to install – no tools required, simply hand-tighten on a standard ½” shower arm.Choose from 1.5, 1.75, 2.0 & 2.5 gpm shower heads.This product is great because you won’t even notice that you are using less water in the shower when in fact, you are using significantly less. And it looks great too!Buy it: As low as: $4.58Red metal hose nozzle with ergonomic grip. Choose from shower, jet, mist, soaker, cone or flat spray settings.
Heavy duty, high quality with an extra durable cast metal handle. Easy to attach.This hose nozzle has been absolutely wonderful for watering my new garden and very durable. I turn the nozzle to shower when I water the entire garden at once, I turn it to mist when my plants need a pick me up during very hot hours of the day, and turn it to soak for my tomato plants in the containers. My son really enjoys helping me too! And as we all understand how much fun it is for children to play with the hose, I can relax knowing that we are wasting less water while he plays because of our water saving hose nozzle.Buy it: As low as: $2.98
Moisture Sensor lets you know the humidity of your soil. The easy to read graduated dial indicates if the soil is dry, moist or wet so that a lawn or garden can be watered accordingly. Save water and save money with this durable conservation aid.Head / dial constructed of sturdy molded plastic. 8 inch metal stem for penetrating to root level. No batteries or electricity required. Instructions and watering tips printed on back of overleaf.This is an absolute must for all you gardeners out there…especially to those of you who, like me, are “new” at gardening. The moisture sensor lets me know when my plants need water, when they have just enough water, and when they have been watered too much. In my case, most of the time it reads “dry”. It can also be used for your lawn. Very cool product!Buy it: As low as: $6.99The complete Outdoor Lawn & Garden ECO-KIT. Save water outdoors with this useful kit of conservation tools. Includes a high quality hose nozzle, hose leak repair parts, hose washers, lawn water ruler, thread sealing tape and a handy sprinkler gauge.Individual descriptions: 1 1/2" Rain/sprinkler gauge, yellow base stake with easy to read numbers. Gauge measures rainfall and other precipitation events. SPRINKLER GAUGE is a simple and important step in conservation. Gauge is high quality molded plastic with molded stake that helps in closely managing lawn and garden watering. Lawn Watering Ruler: Sprinkler gauge water ruler with printed instructions. An easy and accurate way to monitor lawn and garden watering. HOSE NOZZLE with ergonomic grip lets you choose from 9 settings: shower, mist, jet, full, center, flat, vertical, soaker or cone spray. Heavy duty plastic, high quality, light and easy to use. Our most popular hose nozzle. REPLACEMENT HOSE WASHERS for all standard hoses, hose nozzles and hose end sprinklers. Sheet of 12 washers. HOSE LEAK REPAIR PARTS help to quickly and easily repair defective ends or leaky portions of a garden hose. THREAD SEALING TAPE stops any leaking due to uneven or damaged threads. Save water and save money with this durable conservation aid. A complete earth friendly water conservation kit for the outdoors: 8 piece lawn and garden kit. Comes complete with instructions.This is the wonderful gift NRG is giving away on my blog. It has everything you need for ensuring you are not wasting water while using your hose. We REALLY needed this as our spout/hose connection has been dripping terribly ever since we moved into our new home. (Thankfully we rarely needed to use it until this summer). I used NRG’s drip gauge to measure how much water is wasted while the hose is connected to the spout and turned on. According to the gauge, we would be wasting up to 54,000 gpy of water (if our spout/hose was turned on). That’s a lot of precious water being wasted! The hose repair parts are great! It also has a sprinkler gauge so we know how much water our lawn is getting and it lets us know when to turn the sprinklers off. Also, included in the kit was another great hoze nozzle with 9 settings to choose from!Buy it: As low as: $0.35
Drip gauge water measuring vial helps build awareness of what tiny leaks really cost. Simply collect water for 15 seconds in the plastic vial to see what's being lost per day or per year!Save water and save money with this handy conservation tool.Buy it: As low as: $2.19
5" Conventional rain gauge. High quality molded plastic.Gauge measures rainfall and other precipitation events, such as heavy dew and mist - indicating how much watering you need to do to make up the difference. Avoid unnecessary sprinkler use, save water and save money. A simple and important step in conservation.We use this next to our garden so we can measure how much rainfall and sprinkler water our garden is receiving. It’s nice to keep track of our outdoor water usage.I want to thank New Resources Group for supplying all of these products for review. I strongly encourage you to use products to promote water conservation in and around your home. Remember: water is a commodity and so not to be taken advantage of.Bridget James(author of) The Curious Case of Mommyhood
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
State law replaces old watering restrictions in Athens GA
While this spring's wet weather hasn't required much in the way of yard or garden irrigation, Georgians soon might be mired again in a maze of new watering restrictions.
Part of a new state water conservation law will replace the even-odd watering rules that the state Environmental Protection Division has had in place with a new rule that bans outdoor irrigation between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day.
Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the Georgia Water Stewardship Act of 2010 on Tuesday in an effort to ease negotiations with Alabama and Florida over Georgia's use of water from the Chattahoochee River and Lake Lanier.
The changes in outdoor watering rules go into effect immediately, said EPD spokesman Kevin Chambers.
"The utilities around the state are still working out what this all means, and as far as we can tell that is going to be the major change to the watering restrictions," said Marilyn Hall, water conservation director for Athens-Clarke County.
The EPD has required the entire state to follow a nondrought water conservation schedule, which restricted people with odd-numbered addresses to watering on Tuesday, Thursdays and Sundays. People with even-numbered addresses were allowed to water only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The new watering rule allows everyone to use irrigation systems every day of the week - except between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Chambers said.
"You can also hand-water whenever you want," Hall said. "But you're going to have a lot of evaporation during the day, so it's still the smart thing to water in the early morning or the late afternoon."
The EPD hasn't had time to rewrite rules on water use to match the mandates in the new law and probably won't have new guidelines ready for a few months.
However, the new law trumps EPD and local water system rules, some of which are more restrictive than the new state law.
While the water restrictions included in the Stewardship Act begin immediately, other provisions in the law won't take effect for a year or more.
All new construction after July 2012 must use low-flow toilets and other water-efficient plumbing fixtures, and apartment-builders must make sure every unit has its own water meter.
The law requires local governments to ramp up incentive programs to encourage conservation and requires utilities to start accounting for the amount of water that leaks from water mains and distribution pipes.
Water Conservation Order Put In Place After Water Main Break
ETNA (KDKA) ― A mandatory water conservation order has been put in place in the Borough of Etna after a water main break.Water Conservation Order Put In Place In Etna
The borough manager says a four-inch water service line broke on Oakland Street.
But when crews tried to fix it, a valve snapped so it continued to leak.
As a result, storage tanks were depleted and the leak will slowly continue until repairs can be made.
Crews hope to get the break fixed by morning, but until then they are asking everyone not to use any unnecessary water.
"Don't use anything unnecessarily. This is still [going to] leak until we can get that equipment in here and even once it comes, there's a lot of preparation work that has to be done. A hole has to be dug above it, the pipe [has to be] cut, so we don't want to deplete the storage tanks too much," Etna Borough Manager Mary Ellen Ramage said.
At one point, officials said 25 homes were without water, but service has since been restored.
