I have fallen in love with my Flume! Here are three, slightly embarrassing personal stories that help show its value.
The first day we had our Flume, we studied the dashboard (see the photo above) excitedly! All looked good. The next morning, we woke up and saw that we were using 0.2 gallons per hour all night long. Ah-hah! we thought, there must be a leak somewhere. We spent a lot of time brainstorming how we would track down the leak. Then, we found a hose, with a sprayer attached, that had not been shut down. The hose was leaking where the sprayer was attached. We turned it off, and the flow stopped. This thing is sensitive, and is helpful to identify things that are out of the norm.
The second story is that we have now been watching as we run any single fixture. So, for instance, we have figured out how little water our dishwasher uses, even as it gets the dishes much more clean than when we do it by hand. This particular insight shows us that we are opting more and more for using the dishwasher, instead of hand washing dishes and saving water for greywater use.
On this particular point, we have started watching our toilet flushing. We were already not flushing except twice per day per person, and using greywater, where we can. However, as we have watched our Flume, we have discovered that our toilets were using 2.6 gallons per flush. So, we have decided to replace them with 1.6 gallons per flush toilets. This will reduce our consumption by about 4 gallons per day, saving us a bit of money, and capturing the MWD Rebate.
Finally, we have been watching our showers, experimenting with ways to reduce shower water usage. This maybe TMI, but I am now trying to take cold showers at first, to try to avoid the minute of waiting for the water to get hot. Then, I lather with the water off, and finally, rinse in warm water. It takes courage, but I am now taking showers with less water.
The point is, Flume can help you see the impacts of what you are doing, and to make wise decisions.
We all need to get to less than 50 gallons per person per day. Together, we can.
The first day we had our Flume, we studied the dashboard (see the photo above) excitedly! All looked good. The next morning, we woke up and saw that we were using 0.2 gallons per hour all night long. Ah-hah! we thought, there must be a leak somewhere. We spent a lot of time brainstorming how we would track down the leak. Then, we found a hose, with a sprayer attached, that had not been shut down. The hose was leaking where the sprayer was attached. We turned it off, and the flow stopped. This thing is sensitive, and is helpful to identify things that are out of the norm.
The second story is that we have now been watching as we run any single fixture. So, for instance, we have figured out how little water our dishwasher uses, even as it gets the dishes much more clean than when we do it by hand. This particular insight shows us that we are opting more and more for using the dishwasher, instead of hand washing dishes and saving water for greywater use.
On this particular point, we have started watching our toilet flushing. We were already not flushing except twice per day per person, and using greywater, where we can. However, as we have watched our Flume, we have discovered that our toilets were using 2.6 gallons per flush. So, we have decided to replace them with 1.6 gallons per flush toilets. This will reduce our consumption by about 4 gallons per day, saving us a bit of money, and capturing the MWD Rebate.
Finally, we have been watching our showers, experimenting with ways to reduce shower water usage. This maybe TMI, but I am now trying to take cold showers at first, to try to avoid the minute of waiting for the water to get hot. Then, I lather with the water off, and finally, rinse in warm water. It takes courage, but I am now taking showers with less water.
The point is, Flume can help you see the impacts of what you are doing, and to make wise decisions.
We all need to get to less than 50 gallons per person per day. Together, we can.
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