How many gallons of water do you use per day? If you have a few minutes to answer some questions, you can calculate it your daily usage here. Merely being aware of when we are using water and wishing to reduce that usage can achieve wonders.
Permaculture attempts to work with humans, animals, and plants as part of a whole. In assessing your landscape with Permaculture in mind, a person would plant where water naturally flows and/or divert water using land contouring techniques. It is fairly difficult to hurt anything when you live with the flow of nature rather than struggling against it.
Just as the Mayans built dams to collect water during the rainy seasons, there are ways to save rain for another day today. Barrels that sit at the end of your gutter downspouts are one idea as in Figure 1. Even a small rainfall can yield a large collection off the surface of a roof. I used this rainfall calculator to determine how many gallons of water I could collect off my 10ft by 10 ft shed after a mere half inch of rainfall. I would have 31 gallons. To put that into perspective, I just put in new toilets at my house that use 1.6 gallons per flush.
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| Figure 1. Rain Barrel. Amazon.com |
What is greywater? This video covers the basics in about a minute and a half.
Greywater use is more complex than this video. However, it is worth mentioning as a viable option for some. I plan to discuss greywater in greater detail next time.
There are also a myriad of adorable ideas such as a water saving toilet tank sink.
Works Cited
"GRACE's Water Footprint Calculator." Water Footprint Calculator. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
"Rainwater Collection, Rain Barrel, Rainfall Calculator: Gardener's Supply." Gardeners Supply. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. "Good Ideas RWURN-LIG Rain Wizard Rain Barrel Urn 65-Gallon, Light Granite." Amazon.com : : Rain Barrels : Patio, Lawn & Garden. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
"What Is Greywater?" YouTube. YouTube. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
"Build This Water-Saving Toilet Tank Sink | Make:." Make DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers. 2015. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
Wow I love that flower plant barrel it's adorable. The Greywater concept is very cool! I would definitely benefit from that as I live in the Poudre Canyon. The hills around our property are very steep and water runoff is typically very steady in a storm. That would be hundreds of gallons of water that we'd typically pump from the well.
ReplyDeleteI liked the link to check your water usage. My daily usage is 1,820 gallons, which is astounding to me considering that I never leave faucets on, I recycle and I let it mellow. That is about the size of a pond. More shocking is that the average user uses 2,220 gallons a day!
ReplyDeleteI would add that Colorado has the most ridiculous law concerning rain barrels. It is against the law in this state to collect rain on your property. If we could change the law, I believe many people, such as Benjamin and myself would get to collecting that rain water.
I agree that permaculture is a great way to utilize water efficiently. In the wilderness there are permacultures, which are basically an ecologically stable environment where there is an abundance of biological diversity.