SAVE WATER IN BUILDINGS & ON SITE

Today more than ever, it is imperative that we begin to be conscious about our water use. Reducing water usage also reduces energy use and the costs associated with building operation; transporting, treating or desalinating water are very energy intensive tasks that are necessary when water is not used carefully.

The most sustainable way to manage water usage in a building is to reduce the amount of water used.  This can be done using more efficient washing machines, dishwashers, shower and water fixtures and toilets. More efficient shower fixtures mix air with water to produce a similar feel and effect as regular showers while using significantly less water. Along with low flow sinks and showers, water saving toilets can effectively reduce water consumption. There are a wide variety of options when it comes to toilets depending on one’s needs and willingness to break with one’s cultural influences.

Toilets (Non-renewable water)

Toilets similar to the classic flush, they still do offer water savings, are those that are simply designed to use less water per flush than traditional toilets (low flow toilets). These types of toilets also use aeration to help reduce the amount of water they need.  Another popular design to reduce water usage is the dual-flush toilet.This type of toilet has two flushing options, one is a full flush and the other is a half, giving the user the option of only a half flush if they deem a full flush unnecessary.

Finally, the most water efficient toilet is the toilet that uses none: the composting toilet. There are many designs of composting toilets, some of which use small amounts of water and some which use none; all use significantly less than a traditional toilet. Composting toilets often consist of a fixture with a tube that leads down to a holding tank (which has a ventilation tube that prevents smells from entering the bathroom).

The holding tank often consists of several compartments or a ramp which separates composted hummus from fresh detritus. If the system is set up correctly, it is free of pathogens and can be used in a home garden (although it is not recommended for edible plants due to the risk of the toilet/composting process being set up incorrectly), and generally must be removed on a quarterly, biannually or annual basis. Along with reducing the amount of water needed for a building to run, supplementing the use of well water, grid water and other nonrenewable or only partially renewable sources of water is a good idea.

There are two main ways of collecting water onsite: gray water collection and rainwater catchment.

Gray water

Gray water collection is essentially recycling water onsite. Gray water is water from sinks and showers and different from black water in that it does not contain a significant amount of pathogens (like that of toilet water) or harmful chemicals. Collected gray water can be used for flushing toilets, watering plants, or can be bio-remediated (“any process that uses microorganisms, fungi, green plants or their enzymes to return the environment altered by contaminants to its original condition”) on site for use as potable water again (“Bio-remediation”).

Rainwater

Rainwater catchment is an excellent method towards meeting a building’s water needs. Depending on one’s location, there can plenty of water to last through the dry months if excess water is stored during wet months. Collecting the water is often simply done by connecting downspouts from a roof to a storage container. There are several options for storing rainwater and many different materials to use in a cistern, however ferro-cement tends to offer the most cost-effective option.Water that is collected and stored in this method is not guaranteed safe for consumption however, like gray water, water from roofs should be filtered or bio-remediated to remove unsafe chemicals and pathogens that may be part of the rain water or come from a composition roof.