Wednesday, August 16, 2017

How we can save on water, daily?.. A personal experience, by KrishnaNand


How we can save on water, daily?.. A personal experience!

Namaste and Greetings to all!

Problem:
Conventional tap, dispenses high volume of water, than usage needs. Plus taps are designed for max out flow of water, every second.  And that suits our fast paced modern life.  In reality, very high volume of water is wasted than good use.

Solution:
Use Aerator Adapter, on dispensing end of the tap, to save over 500% of water from run-off.
Calculation:
-Method: I used a simple method of usage; ‘the regular behavior’ to establish the savings.
Max direct usage of water by people are in Sink or wash basin. And the wastage is unknown! Lets explore…

Step1: With regular Tap:
I looked for typical use-case and picked up face-washing and soap application.

Usual behavior is to open the tap--> to wet the face, -→keep the tap flowing-→ apply soup-→ scrub/massage face and neck for few mins, while the water is running(bcoz, with soapy hand, only does not find comfort in turning the tap off.. and equally, turning on is difficult, bcoz of soapy hand)

Typically one takes 1 to 2mins, some times 3 to 5 mins to wash face.

Findings: Then I set up, a timer to measure flow of water with regular-opened-tap(1/8 of full turn). It took 4 secs to fill a liter of water.(this could vary, depending on tank pressure and the floor you stay… lower the floor higher the pressure head, hence higher is fill rate…)

So in about 1 min, each individual wud have dispensed 15 litres, to a whopping 75litres in 5 mins, depending on his/her behavior… all drained out as run-off.

This is only with face wash… One can estimate similar run-offs while brushing teeth and shaving etc..

Step2: Installed Eco 365-3LPM aerator. And repeated the above procedure, with same behavior..
Water flow, appeared full as before, with streaky flow, psychologically giving same impression as full flow, as before.
Now ran the timer: It took 40 secs to fill a liter of water… I did not feel deprivation of water, to perform the said activity.

Saving Calculation:
Water use with regular tap, for 1 min=15liters(i.e 4sec X15=60 sec. Hence 15 liters)
Water use with aerator installed tap, for 1 min= 1.5 Liters.(for 60 sec)

Saving is evident that (15-1.5)=13.5 liters/min
% saving of water is (13.5/1.5)X100=900% water savings…. So its a ‘must have’ action!

..Disclosure: Considering variation is use, by individuals and other factors stated above, and keeping some conservatism, I declared a saving of 500%+, on moving to this aerator…

Highly recommend for adoption as I’ve tested, at my home on all four sinks and wash basins

Best wishes!

Other water austerities, recommended for immediate implementations..
a) Reduce flush gate to 50% of flush tank-fill. Sufficient to flush toilet.
b) Use hand shower, that way, by behavior correction, once only needed water will get used and run-off reduced. Better still use a bucket+mug. Use water judiciously!
c) Use washing machine in economy, or quick wash mode, most times. For a family of 4 to 5, u don’t need full wash-time.
d) Pls instruct maids and domestic helps to turn of kitchen/Sink tap, when not rinsing vessels.
e) If u r using RO water plant, pls recognize, RO plant throws out(run-off) 3portions for providing 1portion of consumption...Pls collect the run-off water in buckets and use it for bathing, toilet flush tank, plant watering and vessel cleaning, floor wash/mopping etc.. (BTW: RO is more a health damager.. its a different discussion...reach me separately for remedy...u dont need to throw away ur costly RO plant).

Lets all do our part, to save ourselves, our family, our society and ofcourse our country, from blind (=irresponsible) adaptation of technologies...It has to be a peoples’ movement… Govt is like a large biz house….and much slower to react to any humble/ordinary citizens’ needs!

Similarly, lets look at every resource and drive austerity, including car pooling...What we save today, is available tomorrow, for our use and of-course our children’s use!

Thanks,
Jai Bharat!

KrishnaNand PattabiRaman

PS: My reason for doing this exercise, is bcoz of my personal pain, of immediate economic savings needed. I run a boot strapped startup.. So every penny/dime/paise is valuable. … If u follow the above method, u (Each Flat) could save Rs2500/- each month, from wastage( savings literally from the proverbial down-the-drain)(that is Rs200,000/- a month, from 80 flats)…  Best wishes, again!!!