Seven Ways to Save Energy by Saving Water
Though many states and localities are waking up to their water shortages and taking steps to plan for “peak water”, people generally continue to waste water and to ignore the energy-water link. In 2004 the Natural Resources Defense Council did a study in conjunction with the Pacific Institute called “Energy Down the Drain” on how saving water saves energy. We need to do more to spread the word. Here are seven ways to save energy by saving water:
1. Use local water.
Transporting water uses energy, so rainwater harvesting is a serious water-and-energy saver. According to the NRDC/Pacific Institute study “California’s State Water Project (SWP), which transports water from Northern California to Southern California is the state’s largest single energy user, consuming 2 to 3 percent of all electricity. It takes tremendous amounts of energy to pump the water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains — the highest water lift of any water system in the world
2. Use less heated water in homes and businesses.
Heating water uses a great deal of energy. Small things magnified a million times over — like washing clothes with cold water or taking shorter showers — saves large amounts of energy.
3. Use energy-saving appliances.
Energy Star appliances will decrease water and energy use.
4. Learn from Australia.
Why reinvent the wheel? Since 2006, when the BBC reported Australia’s biggest drought in 1,000 years, the situation has not improved. In an island nation, this has a tendency to focus the mind, and water-and energy-saving inventions have been pouring forth from that country, while the government introduces policies that save energy and water almost daily.
5. Rethink your bathroom.
Toto, an innovative company from Japan (another island nation concerned about water use) offers an EcoPower hands-free faucet that recharges itself each time it is used.
6. Rip out that lawn and replace it with a rain garden.
Watering grass, fertilizing it with petroleum-based fertilizers, and mowing it with a gas or electric mower…..need I say more?
7. Eat more vegetables and grains; cut down on the beef.
Animal farming takes more energy and water. “Beef production requires large volumes of water–as much as 100 times that required to produce equivalent amounts of protein energy from grains.” (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 And the cows are fed from corn that is farmed using energy-hogging fertilizers, insecticides, and fossil fuels.
If you think about it, it’s impossible to separate our energy use from our water use. If we can start thinking holistically about the systems we use in our daily lives — and get our governments to create policies that promote wise use of energy and water, we’ll be more ready for the limits to resources that are only going to increase.
Posts Related to Saving Energy and Water:
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Water Crisis: Clean Tech to the Rescue?
Seven Ways to Save Energy by Saving Water | nerdd.net…
\r\nThough many states and localities are waking up to their water shortages and taking steps to pla…
[...] Seven Ways to Save Energy by Saving Water [...]
So, about #6 - you do need to say more. What in the hell is a rain garden?
[...] for “peak water”, people generally continue to waste water and to ignore the energy-water link.read more | digg [...]
Let us live in teepees, hunt the wild buffalo, and eat wild nuts and berries.
Don’t ration water and electricity unless you have to.
Water. Saving water means higher water prices. Whether you use 1 gallon or 1000 gallons the city still has to maintain the infrastructure. The less you use the higher it’ll cost. If you aren’t in a drought situation use the water.
Spare capacity.
As we’ve seen in Georgia people will keep building in an area until they’ve completely run out of resources. If you are already using a bare minimun of water or electricity you have nothing to cutout when everyone else uses your share. Thank god the housing bubble burst and homebuilding declined. The North Texas Water district (dallas and east)knew new houses being built were stretching their water supplies thin, but rather than limiting new building they went searching for more water. In the meantime everyone else was placed on drought condition water restrictions. If drought restrictions are in place its time to stop building your population.
Electricity. It take a minimum of 5 years to build a new power plant. As we’ve seen capacity planning is a joke. If you’re already sitting in the dark what do you have left to cut back when rationing occurs? Turn off your computer and stop posting. Think of the power saved by people not reading this article.
Niice…. especially liked the one about the use of local water sources
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Replace the lawn with a garden full of native plants. They have evolved in the local soil and climate for thousands of years and get by with natural precipitation (when established). Hard to improve on thousands of years of evolution. Here in California, we have a breathtaking diversity of native plants to choose from.
We can put a brick or rock in the toilet cistern. Have water barrels in the garden to collect run off. And perhaps develop some way of collecting all that condensation in the mornings. It is probably thousands of gallons per city.