While droughts are a natural part of California’s climate, human warming has made them even drier. Post Eric Haas62, in Oakland in 2007, California in a drought The time for such a state has not been determined. After several years of experiencing drought conditions, in California professor he installed a rainwater and gray water capture system at his very efficient urban home to do his part in conserving water.
I After college, he joined the Peace Corps in 1985, and was a math and education teacher in Buchanan, Liberia. There, I began to realize that large parts of the world do not live with all the forces of consumerism and materialism that we do in the US.
I began to see the innovative ways people were heating or cooling their homes and how they were getting water. I had to carry my own water sometimes, and I was very conscious of where it came from. This experience began to coalesce into this idea that life could reflect the environment in which you lived. Relatively simple ideas could make a big difference in the comfort and quality of your home. You can adapt and adapt to your lifestyle.
I met my wife in Caracas, Venezuela, where we were both teachers, and when our family lived in Oakland, CaliforniaIn 2007, part of the decision in buying a house was whether it was somewhere I could finally focus on water conservation and other carbon-footprint projects like installing solar panels, insulation, and the main appliance.
I hired Dig Cooper Inc., a local contractor known for pioneering water conservation systems throughout the greater Bay Area, to install a rainwater and gray water collection system at our home. I can collect about 4,000 gallons of water, which translates to about 7in of rain coming off the roof. Filtered rainwater is used to fill urinals and washing machines and to water most of our plants. It can also be kept on site for emergency use in case of fire or earthquake.
Our gray water system takes “use” shower, bathroom sink and wash machine water and directs it to the backyard to irrigate our vegetable garden and six fruit trees. An average household can produce over four 30,000 bottles of gray for a year! Although we use water resources and low faucets, so we use a lot less water than average, and we still have gardens and trees in abundance.
During 2024, the typical household in our area used an average of 124 gallons of water per day. An average of 39 gallons of water per day, minus a third.
It wasn’t difficult, and the whole project took about a week. Rain barrels need to be purchased and installed and land to be leveled. I have a relatively small and simple house and connecting it to the existing plumbing with a rainwater and gray system only took a day or two.
The entire project cost about $15,000. We still have a water bill because the shower, sink and washer use regular city water, but a fraction of it is used. Water It’s not very expensive here, less than $0.01 a gallon, once you deduct the standard service. Compared to the average water user, I will save about $220 a year on my water bill. Yes, my rainwater and gray water do more to my local environment than they do to my wallet.
When to move OaklandI noticed a lot about climate change. Nobody had air conditioning before, and never even thought about it. Now is the need of the chosen days. When I first put in the system, there was enough rain during the drought in California to fill the reservoirs that I never had to get water back to the city several years ago. Now it only lasts for about 10 months. The drought season is so dry and when we have had extra rain during the rainy season my tanks overflow and drain into the sewer because they are full.
We are going to approach our water differently in California. We can’t pump water from aquifers because they don’t replenish as fast as we use them. We have seen all the damage in various parts of California, like lakes that are no more and land that has slipped in elevation. Our hot water is now impacting our quality of life. We have water restrictions days where they ask you not to use so much water, not even flushing our toilets all the time, and we are encouraged not to have lawns even if we wanted one. We see a clear direct impact and have known about it for decades.
With rainwater and gray water it’s easy to do, especially if you’re planning it for any type of new construction or even retrofitting. If more people added rainwater and gray home systems, we could save our money and save infrastructure money: they save money for the municipal water process, for the water release and for the runoff that happens after our now extra heavy rain. . You can have a really beautiful garden. We have a hot tub, we have a regular shower, but because those things are connected to this larger system, we have a much smaller impact.
I feel like I’m doing something real and concrete, and every time I hear the fresh water pump go on, or when I hear the pump from our rainwater system, to go to the washing machine or to fill the toilet, water that I’m not. from reason and things.
Every time it rains, I like to go out and see them and see how much is pouring into the system. It brings me joy with the natural environment in this small way in my urban home.
-
My DIY climate hack is a series about ordinary people across the US using their talents to tackle the climate crisis in their neighborhoods, homes and yards. If you would like to share your story, please email us diyclimate@theguardian.com