ps. Let’s also work together to press SRP for pool cover rebates. They are completely non-responsive to my effort, so will take group pressure unfortunately. There’s power in numbers.

Note: the latest Inventor’s Diary at inventorsdiary.info for dramatically entertaining stories of the shadowy world of big business.

2) decrease volume of water when washing hands to a stream the thickness of a pencil

3) only run water when rinsing toothbrush

4) eliminate baths

5) shower for 3 – 5 minutes

Part One is to follow the “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down”.

Part Two is to discard the notion that the toilet needs to be flushed with fresh, potable, water – it clearly does not. We collect hand washing, dish rinsing and cooking water in plastic jugs having the identical capacity to the toilet tank.

Water transfer from sink to jug is done with the inexpensive plastic squeeze-bulb pumps that siphon automatically after a squeeze or two.

It is not necessary to completely remove the toilet tank lid; we just leave it slid sideways sufficient to allow pouring from the jugs.

It seems to us that for areas such as the U.S. Southwest, the Los Angeles basin and any other areas where the future of an adequate water supply is problematical, this simple procedure by each household could have enormous benefits in assuring adequate future water, reducing pumping costs, the need for new wells, and reducing the need for water supply and wastewater treatment facility expansion.

One area of resistance that may be encountered is the notion fostered by the companies that manufacture cleaning products that all “household germs” are bad and must be eliminated. This is patently false and serves only the sales of products. Water in the toilet bowl containing residue from hand washing, dish rinsing or boiling rice does no harm, in fact the soap in the water continually cleans the bowl.

Happy Water Conserving!

Every year swimming pools are wasting billions of gallons of water that can be saved. This paper addresses the problems with the current use of full pool covers and how half covers are the solution to pool water conservation.

It is well known that pool covers can reduce water evaporation by up to 95%, yet less than 30% of pools are using covers. The current limitations imposed by full covers for the most part boils down to two problems.
The Twofold Problem

First, full covers are difficult to stock. Full covers are bulky and must be stocked in 50 or more sizes requiring a sizable amount of floor space to have covers on hand for the myriad of pool sizes. If a size goes out of stock, the customer has to wait until the warehouse reorders another truckload of covers. This distribution and stocking problem severely limits the available stock on hand at any one time and prevents the customer from being able to purchase on demand.

Second, full covers for the most part fit only rectangular shaped pools. Covers initially come off the production line as sheets in rectangular shapes and are heat seamed together for various widths. They can be further cut into oval or round sizes, but nevertheless most of the pools built today are irregular free-form shapes and custom designs. In order to accommodate free-form pool shapes the customer many times must oversize the cover which means ordering an even larger than needed cover and cookie-cutting the cover to the free-form pool using the inside of the pool cove as a guide. This however can create a lot of waste. And how do you accommodate say an L-shape pool?

The twofold solution is that by using half covers, the number of cover sizes for distribution and stocking can be reduced from over 50 to just 4 half cover sizes (see below) which can be mixed-n-matched to work with almost all pools up to L-shapes solving both of the aforementioned issues.

Encouraging the industry to distribute half covers allows more people that ever to cover their pools. This practical way of using half covers revolutionizes the way covers are stocked and distributed, never incurring oversize charges and allows dealers to have covers in stock so pool owners never go home empty handed. By solving the problems preventing all pools to use covers, in wake of water shortages that are only getting worse, it becomes a mandate to encourage all pools to be covered.

see http://solarfactory.blogspot.com for the entire story…

Stop rinsing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher
Use a bucket in the shower to collect water while you wait for it to heat up and water your plants with it
Turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth

There are many other ways to conserve – if we all make an effort, we can make a difference.