Good idea
Michael has a very good suggestion regarding water rates.
I must say, i kinda assumed this is how we'd be dealing with the issue of rationing, if it gets down to it. It's what we had in the Central Valley in the early 90s. You got your rationing allotment at the standard price. Exceed your rationing, and the cost went up around fourfold, if i recall.
FWIW - we knocked our usage from 16 units in the mid-July/mid-September billing period, to 11 units in the mid-September/mid-November period just concluded. That's an average of 46 gallons per person per day. I suspect that was higher earlier in the cycle, and down to about 43 by the end of the cycle. I don't know how much more we can wring out of our usage.
I must say, i kinda assumed this is how we'd be dealing with the issue of rationing, if it gets down to it. It's what we had in the Central Valley in the early 90s. You got your rationing allotment at the standard price. Exceed your rationing, and the cost went up around fourfold, if i recall.
FWIW - we knocked our usage from 16 units in the mid-July/mid-September billing period, to 11 units in the mid-September/mid-November period just concluded. That's an average of 46 gallons per person per day. I suspect that was higher earlier in the cycle, and down to about 43 by the end of the cycle. I don't know how much more we can wring out of our usage.
Labels: drought
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7 Comments:
I like the concept of a tiered pricing system, but to be fair it needs to reflect the number of people in each household. That doesn't seem easy to do.
We've cut our household consumption to about 25 gallons a person this week. We'll see if we can maintain that. Squeezing the last few drops of dishwashing water out of the sponges into our parched mouths is kinda tough.
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Anonymous, at 7:52 PM
rations in Stockton were based on previous year's usage. if, as in my case, you needed to apply for an exception (in my case the house had been vacant, and the previous year's usage was 0), number of people in the household was a primary determinant of your allotment.
good for you getting down to 25 gallons (i assume that's per person per day). feel free to share your tips with everyone else.
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Barry, at 10:54 PM
We are getting ticketed for mismanagement by the city. 100 counties in NC and this one is the last to declare a drought? I come from Texas and I've lived my entire life in a drought. I've never been able to water plants in the afternoon... I MOVED HERE FOR THE WEATHER!!! These idiots mismanaged this drought and now we are to pay for it. RIDICULOUS. I say we riot. I say we destroy the city hall and execute EVERYONE!!! No water = destruction for all! Let's take them all out and let God sort 'em out!
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Anonymous, at 3:23 AM
angrytom, haven't you heard about Durham's exclamation point shortage? Luckily for you, CAPS are still in abundance.
barry, I don't know whether you've seen this "water use calculator," but it helped us pinpoint and reduce water use.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/waterusagecalc.html
In addition to the "shower interruptus" and the toilet flushing strategies that everyone is using, we've been very careful with sink-washing of hands, food, dishes, etc. Washing over a bucket or pot and using that water further isn't too onerous at all. It appears that using a dishwasher twice a week saves quite a bit of water over washing as you go. I didn't realize how much water I was saving in my bachelor days.
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Anonymous, at 8:27 AM
Where did you get the impression that Durham was the last county to "declare a drought?"
Oh, by the way, we don't care how you did it in Texas.
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Barry, at 10:41 AM
I also averaged 25 gallons/day over the months of September and October. My main tips are: let your car be very dirty, let your lawn and shrubs die, wash only full loads of clothes/dishes, and take a 4 minute shower. The way I do a 4 minute (on average) shower is that I turn on the radio, wait until the next song starts, jump in, and be out by the end of the song. :)
By
Unknown, at 12:53 PM
At what point do those of us with high efficiency washers tell people they can come use our machines to do the laundry. It increases our invividual water consumption but leads to decreases overall.
And whatever happened to showering with a friend? :)
-Natalie (sorry the instructions are in German now)
By
Anonymous, at 7:52 AM
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