19 January 2009

Weekend water use takes off

| johnboy
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It wasn’t even that hot yesterday, and yet somehow you all managed to burn through a stonking 194ML.

So has everyone just gotten sick of emergency measures stretching into long years?

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http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/its-time-literally-to-go-green-20090122-7nv5.html?page=-1

This article states that mature trees in suburban gardens reduce heat of homes, and save water on air conditioning. Saving water by restricting home garden watering may be a false economy, merely encouraging water use in air conditioners.

Holden Caulfield7:04 pm 22 Jan 09

On what planet are top loaders better than front loaders? That’s just loopy speak.

And frankly, I’d rather sacrifice some of my “allowed” domestic water use if it meant I got to wash my car at home once a month.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy11:29 am 21 Jan 09

Thanks tylersmayhem, I really appreciate that.

Can we regulate to prevent people flushing if they only do a number 1? The old “If it’s yellow, that’s mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down”?

Fines for gratuitous flushing!

On the weekend at the pool I realised that my toddler is frightened to stand on green grass – finding it too spiky – grass is a total unknown thing to many small kids now – so sad.

Exemption for childcare centre lawns I say – they are about 3m square anyway, and not likely to empty the dam.

tylersmayhem9:20 am 21 Jan 09

Absolutely no flowers in vases, of course no swimming pools anywhere…unless greywater is used, a ban on all top loading washing machines (despite them working better than front loaders) and only two loads in a front loader per week per household, complete ban on dishwashers (despite them probably using about the same amount of water used doing dishes several nights in a row if the machine is only put on when full), no ridiculous fun waste of water (i.e. super soaker’s or water balloons)…

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy8:50 am 21 Jan 09

Please continue, that would be great.

tylersmayhem8:43 am 21 Jan 09

That’s right people, the conservation of water is more important than staying cool in summer, watering your gardens that bring you so much pleasure, and washing your cars which are important to keep in good shape. I look forward to the next suggestion and ACT Gov. plans to limit water consumptions by humans, one shower per day limit, and animals can only be washed on every odd week.

I can keep going with the list if you like?!

If Canberra averaged 50ML above the target till the end of March we would use an extra 3.5GL of water. If water inflow matched the 139ML target figure, our reserve would drop from 107GL to 103.5GL. No need for anyone to get their cossies in a knot.

I think Actew can see a bad case of restriction fatigue coming on or Mark Sullivan gets a bonus based on every ML of water below target at financial years end.

I’m sick of the constant harping about targets and now adds on TV telling us when to water and how long to shower.

Who are they trying to kid. At present usage our water supply is secure. Unless Actew simply stop milking the Cotter and pumping from the Murrumbidgee (15GL for both in the year to July) levels won’t get much below 50% even with another bad year, and could be significantly higher

Looks pretty close to what a WAGOV Site is showing, with the water usage for the evap coolers at around 10 – 30 lph.

A little interesting note: according to the Breezair site you shouldn’t really use the dischare water from the evaporative coolers on your garden due to the mineral and salt content – so for the people on here who said they were doing it, be careful, and maybe just use it for the lawn instead!

Is it really 39l an hour in a new system?

We bought one and they made such a point of saying not to turn it on and off as it drew up 18litres every time you turn it on – they said it used less water by just leaving it on…

Holden Caulfield4:29 pm 20 Jan 09

aa said :

According to this site

http://www.ecocooling.ie/faq.htm#a32

they use 39l/hr. Most new homes being built are installing evaporative coolers instead of air conditioners. Say there’s 20,000 homes in canberra with them and they use them 6 6 hours a day (very conservative numbers here), that alone is nearly 5million litres.

If a new home is built in 2009 and needs its cooling on for 6 hours a day, day after day, then the planning authorities need their heads read for allowing such energy inefficient properties to be built in the first place.

Canberra gets hot, don’t get me wrong, but needing to run a cooling system in a domestic situation for 6 hours a day on a regular basis? Even our 1958 home doesn’t need that, and that’s with a massive solid west facing wall (read heat bank).

Then again, I suppose it would be a bit much to ask for the average punter to show a bit of self control and restraint.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy3:50 pm 20 Jan 09

39l/hr!!! You people with evaporative coolers should be ashamed of yourselves!

According to this site

http://www.ecocooling.ie/faq.htm#a32

they use 39l/hr. Most new homes being built are installing evaporative coolers instead of air conditioners. Say there’s 20,000 homes in canberra with them and they use them 6 6 hours a day (very conservative numbers here), that alone is nearly 5million litres.

tylersmayhem8:27 am 20 Jan 09

Bring on the recycled water I say! Black gold…Texas tea – yeeee HAAA!

My rationale for using up the water quota on the weekend was, I can use my sprinkler tonight with minimum bother and I can water the whole place in readiness for the hot week to come. Or, I can stand in the sun for hours hand watering during the week when the temperature skyrockets . . . easy choice, really.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy6:55 pm 19 Jan 09

RuffNReady, I hear what your saying, but reducing use will only go so far. Eventually there will be enough houses and business in Canberra and region that usage cannot practically be reduced further.

As for the argument about needing more rain, I disagree. We need to think a bit smarter than this, ideally as a nation rather than a very small territory. Joining dams acorss the country would allow excess water from other parts of the country to be piped to areas that were too dry. Also, what about other methods of transporting water in?

17L? That’s a very short (2 minute) shower from a AAA-rated (9L/min or less) shower head. Most people use a lot more water than that when they shower.

Yeah… I thought 17 litres was way too low for a shower as well. The result of relying on figures from just one web site (a Uni in USA). Maybe they don’t like showers?

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

Why the hell aren’t we coming up with some more realistic measures for improving supply?

Because supply = rain falling in catchment area. It is not that we don’t capture the water, we capture it very well, it is that not enough water is not falling from the sky.

Also, there are plans – enlarging the Cotter Dam, buying water from Snowy Hydro (stored at Tantangara) and piping it to Googong.

You should be considering the opposite – how can we realistically get people to CONSUME LESS. The average Canberra household consumed 240,000l in 2005, or roughly 660l/day!!! Does that sound sustainable over the long term, and especially during extended El Nino droughts, to you? It doesn’t to me. We just had 2 La Nina (ie. relatively cool, wet) summers in a row, and our dams are barely half full. What happens when the next 5-year drought hits?

From this one paper I read, which disclaims the accuracy of its data, they think evaporative cooling system uses 17 litres of water per hour for a 140 square metre home (a typical Canberra home).

So, that’s roughly a single shower sessions every hour.

17L? That’s a very short (2 minute) shower from a AAA-rated (9L/min or less) shower head. Most people use a lot more water than that when they shower.

A Noisy Noise Annoys An Oyster3:18 pm 19 Jan 09

Gee, that extra shower I’m having after getting home from the pool in the morning is having an effect . . .

I thought that evaporative coolers only use a tiny bit of water…???

Tiny bit of water compared to…?

From this one paper I read, which disclaims the accuracy of its data, they think evaporative cooling system uses 17 litres of water per hour for a 140 square metre home (a typical Canberra home).

So, that’s roughly a single shower sessions every hour.

They use little electricity, at least compared to air conditioners, but they do use a reasonably large amount of water

I thought that evaporative coolers only use a tiny bit of water…???

I think this deserves a poll!! We all love polls!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy1:29 pm 19 Jan 09

I watered the front lawn by hand on both Saturday and Sunday nights. Stuff it – if people are going to continue using watering systems (which they do) and evaporative coolers then I can stand for 10 minutes with my garden hose on.

Why the hell aren’t we coming up with some more realistic measures for improving supply?

tylersmayhem1:00 pm 19 Jan 09

I don’t care any more. I now leave all taps going when I leave the house (kinda like the robbers in Home Alone).

I’m worried about the waterways that don’t get as much water as they used to. Hey, it’s my little way of helping. What was that saying…every waterfall begins with the taps left on?

All the selfish people got back from a month at the coast and re-filled their backyard swimming pools.

Holden Caulfield12:33 pm 19 Jan 09

I’d say it’s a result of the current weekend sprinkler exemption (see below).

http://www.actew.com.au/News/ArticleDetail.aspx?id=944

ok, who left the tap on?

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