Week Seven: Water Works
Congratulations—you have taken the Week Seven Action Quiz. Your score is 286, which means you've promised to take the annual equivalent of 0.03 cars off the road.
">>The average American household expends about 14 percent of the energy it uses on heating water. That adds up to nearly 4 percent of the country's total energy use and spins off about 260 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
>>According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, Americans with inefficient fixtures and appliances use about 80 gallons of water per person per day inside their homes.
>>Showers account for two-thirds of all water heating costs. The shorter your shower time, the more CO2 you'll save.
>>Which is more efficient—you or the dishwasher? Machine bests man in this debate: Hand-washing uses an average of 10 to 15 gallons of water, while automatic dishwashers use about 8. If you don't own a dishwasher or need to wash pots by hand, don't let water run while you're scrubbing."
I pledged to boil only as much water as I need when making tea or cocoa, and to only run the dishwasher when full, which is sort of cheating since we don't have one. But they don't give you any option for that. I did NOT pledge to keep my showers under ten minutes, because GOOD LORD. That's just crazy. Have you seen my hair? My hair alone takes at least 10 minutes to wash and condition and rinse.
I also promised to buy an Energy Star dishwasher and a water heater without a tank if we have to buy either in the next year.
Randomizing:
Life in the 'shwa
Radioactive Jam. Check out this awesome traveling journal project he's planning. There's still space for more participants to create their own pages (*NUDGE NUDGE* THAT CHICK...ahem), so go over and sign up in his comment section.
Reading: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Playing: a brand-new Christmas mix I made for my friend KJ...don't tell her, because it's a surprise ;)
A water heater without a tank? I wonder how that works.
ReplyDeleteI just found out I need a new water heater, so I looked into this tankless deal. . .they're at LEAST twice as expensive as conventional waterheaters. Bummer.
ReplyDeleteI second the sentiment about the 10 minute shower. I've never been able to pull that off if I actually intend to clean my whole person in the shower. So much of that is hair maintainence... washing & removing of. My father -who is the mocking type- always liked to mock the long shower stateing that no shower should take more than 5 minutes.... Impossible to do much more than just rinse off in 5 minutes, but that's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link! We have an water saver showerhead and a toilet that only uses 6L per flush. I'm a 5 minute showerer despite my hair, but husband makes up for my inefficiencies.
ReplyDeletemy dad can take a 5 minute shower, but he's bald.
ReplyDeletei can shower in under 10 if i don't do the hair, 25-35 if i do. the hair is evil.