WaterSense, a partnership
program sponsored by EPA, seeks to protect the future
of our nation's water supply by offering people a simple
way to use less water.
The WaterSense
Current is a quarterly update dedicated to news
and events related to WaterSense.
Less Is More—a Lot More
Savings, that is. In 2008, consumers who installed WaterSense labeled
toilets, faucets, and faucet accessories helped save more than 9.3
billion gallons of water and realized $55 billion in savings on
water and sewer utility bills.
These savings resulted from the sale of 1.38 million WaterSense
labeled toilets and 4.4 million WaterSense labeled bathroom faucets
and aerators. To date, buyers can choose from more than 300
different toilet models and more than 1,000
different types of water-saving faucets and accessories such
as aerators that have earned the WaterSense label since 2007.
And water is only part of the equation. WaterSense labeled faucets
saved U.S. households nearly 1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity
from not heating the extra water, and utilities saved an additional
25 million kWh of electricity that otherwise would have been needed
to pump and treat that water. This avoided the production of nearly
1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to
removing 180,000 automobiles from the road for one year. Something
to contemplate the next time you wash your hands—with a WaterSense
labeled faucet, we hope.
When the mercury rises, so does your water use. “Peak”
water use describes the time of year when residential water use
is at its highest, usually late July and early August, depending
on where you live. While using water efficiently is important throughout
the year, sometimes the timing of water use can make a big difference
for water supplies—and your water bill.
An average household’s water use is 260 gallons per day.
By contrast, peak seasonal water use is around 1,000 gallons per
day. Some households use as much as 3,000 gallons on an extreme
peak day! That’s equivalent to a garden hose running open
for nearly eight hours. Water use will peak on an hourly basis,
too, usually between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., with a secondary peak
between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
During the summer, when water use is typically two to four times
that of winter water use, peak periods are an issue, as water systems—even
those with plentiful supplies—can be taxed by this spike in
demand. Extreme demand for watering lawns, washing cars, filling
backyard pools, and enjoying other warm-weather activities can outstrip
supply, cause increased capital expenditure for the water system,
tax water infrastructure, lead to a rise in pollution levels, and
require new water sources to be created solely for those peak use
periods.
To reduce costs and ensure adequate supply for all customers, water
systems across the country encourage residents to limit their water
use during the hottest summer days, and to wait to irrigate lawns
and gardens, refill pools, or perform other water-intensive tasks
until demand is lowest (e.g., before 6:00 in the morning). Landscape
contractors can also adjust the timers on irrigation controllers
so they will not go off during peak hours.
Proving it can be done, one WaterSense partner, Central
Arkansas Water,
addressed and successfully shifted peak water use with its “Avoid
the Peak” program, using public service announcements, radio
spots, and bill stuffers.
In its latest effort to bring water efficiency directly to
American homeowners, the WaterSense
program's specification for water-efficient new homes
asks the question, what if you could buy a house that made
saving water convenient for you?
Jennifer Bowman and her family of four found out first hand
when they became the first family to move into a home built
to meet WaterSense criteria for water-efficient new homes.
The house, just outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina, touts
a host of water-saving features, including kitchen and bathroom
fixtures with aerators that reduce the amount of water needlessly
sent down the drain as well as WaterSense labeled toilets.
“We love this house,” says Bowman. “Living
here has enabled us to do good things for the environment,
without drastically changing our lifestyle.”
If anything, some aspects of the home have made life more
convenient for the Bowmans. Doorbell-shaped buttons in the
kitchen and bathrooms flush and re-circulate water through
the pipes, allowing hot water to arrive to fixtures quicker,
saving time and water. “Guests are curious when they
see those buttons, but once we explain it, they think it’s
the coolest thing… they think we’re like the Jetsons,”
Bowman says. Indeed, the future is now for homes that can
help conserve water resources without giving up quality of
life.
Saving some serious change in the process is another perk.
The Bowman family’s water bills are routinely in the
lowest or second-lowest range of usage possible, and they
don’t have to obsess over every last drop. Still, the
Bowmans, who have always been water-conscious, find that their
home’s performance motivates them to do their part to
conserve water.
“When people think green, they think sacrifice,”
says Bowman, “but [in the future] buying a WaterSense
labeled home won’t change your way of life, and it won’t
break the bank. It’s also the right thing to do for
my kids and eventually my grandkids.” Especially in
states with recurring drought concerns, conserving water every
day by purchasing a home built to the WaterSense program’s
specification will be a smart investment for future homebuyers
and future generations.
The WaterSense program released a revised draft of the specification
to establish the criteria for water-efficient new homes in
May. The Bowmans’ home was built as part of a pilot
program in 2009. When the specification is finalized later
this year, the voluntary WaterSense New Homes program will
open for builders who construct single-family homes and townhomes,
three stories or less in size. Visit the revised
draft WaterSense new homes specification page for more
information about the upcoming program, or learn more about
the Bowmans’ water-efficient digs in a story featured
in University
City Magazine (PDF) (3 pp, 1.3MB, About PDF).
Did you know that backyard pools lose their water
just by sitting in the sun? Covering your pool could
cut its evaporative water loss by as much as 50
percent, saving both the cost of water and the cost
of pool chemicals. Using a cover could save up to
14,000 gallons annually in places where pools remain
open year-round. That's enough water to wash your
family's bathing suits and pool towels more than
300 times!
Because water is a renewable resource—and seems so plentiful—you
might wonder, “Why do we need to ‘save’ it? Won’t
it always be there?” Yes, it’s true that thanks to the
natural water cycle and modern wastewater treatment facilities,
water can be purified and reused over and over. But that’s
only part of the story. When we use water, we need to understand
how our actions affect the water cycle and, ultimately, the availability
and quality of water to people around us and downstream.
Water in lakes, reservoirs, and underground aquifers can behave
like a finite resource and be depleted at alarming rates during
periods of peak usage or drought. Under natural circumstances, the
water cycle will recharge these types of water storage…eventually.
Unfortunately, water use rapidly increases in the seasons when precipitation
is at its lowest, and so water does not recharge quickly enough.
Here’s how it works: The water cycle is usually depicted
on a global scale, but the cycle takes place on a much more localized
level. Communities are typically connected by a common water source
called a watershed. A watershed, also referred to as a drainage
basin, is a region where all the water that falls on that land drains
to a common source of water, such as a river, lake, or aquifer.
Communities then access and distribute this water through a public
supply system or individuals pump it from wells in a shared aquifer.
Water managers maintain a delicate balance between the amount of
water available from a given source and the number of customers
they feel it can effectively supply.
Ideally, once an upstream community uses water in its homes, it
can be treated and made available for another downstream community
to use. But not all water continues downriver. As much as 50 percent
of water used for lawn irrigation can be lost due to evaporation
and overwatering, for example. And evaporated water can travel long
distances before returning to the ground as rain, meaning when and
where it will fall next continues as a time-worn guessing game.
As populations grow, aging water infrastructure can struggle to
keep up with demand. Reducing water use through efficient technologies
and tactics, such as installing WaterSense labeled plumbing fixtures
or watering your lawn only when necessary, can ease the strain on
supply and allow clean water to be shared effectively among more
people. To understand that every drop indeed counts, consider that
for every nine households that install WaterSense labeled toilets,
enough water is saved to supply one more household in the community!
Not to mention by saving water, we also conserve energy and help
reduce our carbon footprint.
The WaterSense Current periodically profiles
outstanding WaterSense partners and their achievements in advancing
water efficiency and water-efficient products and practices.
Founded
in 1953, Ferguson Enterprises is the country's largest wholesale
distributor of plumbing supplies. As a wholesaler, Ferguson naturally
watches the market closely and, in recent years, has seen a growing
uptick in business and consumer interest in products that preserve
natural resources, including water. So in 2007, Ferguson decided
that partnering with WaterSense was a natural step.
Since then Ferguson has continued to develop its support of WaterSense
and has placed renewed emphasis on its green initiative, which centers
on educating associates and customers to better understand what
“being green” is all about.
“Supporting customers’ needs for green products makes
good business sense,” says Will Hummel, Ferguson’s manager
of emerging markets and green strategies. The company wants its
associates and customers to understand both the environmental and
economic benefits of using green products—all the more important
in today’s economy.
The North American company, a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based
Wolseley plc, has educated its staff about the benefits of water
efficiency and WaterSense labeled products with remarkable speed
for a company of its size. So well, in fact, that this training
helped Ferguson win the 2008 WaterSense Partner of the Year for
retailers and distributors.
Hummel says the company recognizes that the market for water-saving
products will continue to grow, and so Ferguson continues to educate
its associates and expand its inventory of water-efficient products
to provide customers with solutions to meet their water conservation
needs. With 300 showrooms and approximately 1,400 locations across
the country, there is a good chance there is a Ferguson near you.
Water
Use: Drop It When It's Hot
Can
We Really "Save" Water?
Founded
in 1953, Ferguson Enterprises is the country's largest wholesale
distributor of plumbing supplies. As a wholesaler, Ferguson naturally
watches the market closely and, in recent years, has seen a growing
uptick in business and consumer interest in products that preserve
natural resources, including water. So in 2007, Ferguson decided
that partnering with WaterSense was a natural step.