a peek inside the fishbowl

Our design is getting a little closer to being finalized. More on that later.

My last reno post was about energy conservation. Today I’m thinking about water.

On a scale of 1 – 10, how important do you think it is for residents of the water-plentiful parts of this planet to conserve water?

Water is pretty cheap. But does that mean that we should all use as much as we want? For me it’s not a necessarily a cost issue, it’s almost a moral or ethical issue.

I bought Mark a shower timer for Christmas as a joke. It’s a sand-dial with a suction cup on the back so it sticks to the wall. Turn it once and it gives you four minutes. Funny thing is, I’ve been using it, and I’ve realized that I really can have a shower in four minutes. (!)

Here in Ottawa, we’ve had our share of water-related issues recently.

#1 – The water ban. If you live in Ottawa you know what I’m talking about. Residents in Barrhaven and Manotick have been asked to stop using water that would normally go to watering their lawns, washing their cars, and filling up kiddy pools. Car washes were asked to shut down temporarily too. Anyone caught breaking the ban could be fined upwards of $500. This is all because of construction happening on a water main and the City’s priority was to maintain pressure and a safe supply of drinking water. As a result, rain barrels have been selling out all over the city.

#2 – Ongoing issues with sewage in the Ottawa River. This is a problem that really bothers me. It’s almost guaranteed to happen after a rainstorm because our sewage system can’t handle overflows. Over 15 million litres of contaminated water flowed into the Ottawa River in the first four days of May (source). The City’s strategy is to develop a series of storage tanks to hold the overflow. This is a $140 million plan. (source) Dear Ottawa, I don’t want poop in my river. Thank you.

I believe that small things add up to big things. Like with turning our lights out, or the city’s Green Bin program. If one person participates the margins are small, but if more join in the difference can be huge.

So how can one family (a) make positive changes in regards to water waste and how can we (b) help decrease the amount of runoff? What are those tiny steps we can take?

How about this toilet, for starters? The more I look at it, the more I love it. Not only is it a gorgeous design, but it’s a total spacesaver, perfect for a powder room. The sink and toilet attached, internally and externally. Wastewater from the sink is used to fill the toilet’s cistern (in that order) so you’re actually using your water twice. Isn’t that cool? (Question is, is this available in Ottawa, and how much is it? I’m willing to bet that the price is the reason we won’t be able to buy it. Boo.)

Or a greywater system?
Greywater is the slightly-used household wastewater generated by laundry, dishwashing, showering, and bathing. I would love to investigate some kind of greywater system, but I’m not sure it’s allowed in the city. I think it would be neat if my dishwater could exit the house and water the trees and lawn, but I have a feeling that our property is too small and that it wouldn’t work in the winter. There’s a whole bunch of information about this here.

What about a tankless hot water system for our low-flow shower?
Having a giant tank in the basement, full of water that is heated 24/7, ready for just in case we need it, defies logic. There is no big holding tank of water in a tankless hot water system (obviously). Water is superheated on demand, and runs though tiny coils before you get it out of the tap. It makes sense, right? There’s an interesting article about it here.

Now what about that rainwater runoff?

We already have a rainbarrel. It’s fantastic. It collects rainwater from one of our downspouts. It fills up after one good rain shower. If I had another one it would pretty much cover all of our gardening needs for the entire summer. We bought our rainbarrel at Arbour about 10 years ago. It’s a repurposed, commercial grade olive barrel. You can read more about the ones from Arbour here.

When the reno is done I’d like to look into xeriscaping, that is, creating a garden that doesn’t need extra watering. There’s a good article at CHMC about designing a water-wise garden that includes some good information about xeriscaping. You can check that out here.

I think of the biggest reasons we have so much runoff is because of the ever increasing ratio of pavement to garden and grass.  Roads, driveways, sidewalks and roofs act as giant rain catchers, sending millions of litres of perfectly good rainwater into the sewer system. Personally, I don’t think we can entertain a green roof (we’re realizing that our budget is much smaller than we thought – more on that later) but I would like to look into an eco-driveway.

Driveways are odd things, when you think about it. Driveways, like green lawns, are a fashion statement. There’s false prestige associated with a big driveway and a big expanse of perfectly manicured grass. For some reason society dictates that every house must have a smooth black driveway in front of it. And now that most families own two cars, the trend is to design a driveway that is twice the size so it can comfortably accommodate two cars side-by-side. Who says this should be the way it is?

When you think about it, driveways are bad for the environment in a bunch of different ways.

There’s so much to think about during the reno process that it can feel overwhelming at times. I’m torn on the water issue. I’d love to do something about water waste, but am keenly aware of our budget, which greatly affects our ability to do something big. What do you think?