Day Seventy-Five - Scrub-A-Dub-Dub

Closing the Drain Before Starting the Water

I must be in the mood for water conservation this week, cuz I've instituted another "water change". Starting today, when bathing the kids (or me, for that matter), I will no longer perch on the edge of the tub, watching the water shoot out full blast -- straight down the drain -- whilst I wait for it to reach the optimum bathing temperature. Why do I do that anyway? I'm just going to keep sitting there swishing the water around with my hand until I have "evened out" any water temperature discrepancies before putting the kids in (Good God, man, how anal am I?!?!).
I timed it today and it takes nearly two full minutes for the hot water to travel from the garage up to the kids' bath. During that time, approximately five gallons of A-1 super-clean water go right down the drain. What a waste! Not anymore. Starting today, there will be no pre-warming of the bathwater. It is what it is and if I'll just add more hot to even it out - not exactly rocket science, is it? And yet, a lot of folks do it. Supposedly "green folks", just like me.


Savings:

The kids take about three baths a week. They bathe together, except for "shampoo night" when they get to bathe seperately, but we don't drain the tub between baths. Me? I take a bath maybe once a month. Note to first time readers -- I do SHOWER daily, though... except for To Hell With Personal Hygiene Days. Hubby doesn't "do" baths... something about "sitting in a tepid pool of his own filth"... So, let's call it 15 baths a month, times 5 gallons per bath - that's 75 gallons a month, 900 gallons per year - over one full ccf.


Difficulty Level: 1 out of 5

Again, like so many other changes, this takes zero effort, just a new way of doing things.