It’s wonderful to see how easily water conservation techniques can be applied at home. I think this issue is a very hot topic, particularly in the light of the first overturned veto of the Bush Administration. Republicans and Democrats alike agreed that we need to conserve this vital resource on the municipal level, and you have shown us that we can do our part on the individual level.

It might be TMI, but that’s why I never flush the toilet after just one usage (um…of the yellow variety). That’s also why we never use our dishwasher. Next step: a new shower for the house of ZD!

You’re right– water conservation at home is fairly easy. It actually can be made VERY easy with a handful of the right tools. We’re still exploring the DIY graywater wetland, for example, but if water conservation were merely considered relevant in home design, a graywater filter tank could easily be installed next to the hot water heater. People just don’t do it, and they especially don’t do it in an industrial setting, leading to problems like what Atlanta faces. But do they think about conservation then? No, they just try to suspend the Endangered Species Act.

I try the “yellow is mellow” system, but my nose is a bit too sensitive to that, so I save it for at night and times like that when I know I won’t smell it. We’re working on some changes to the toilet, too.

You’re right, living in South Florida is likely making this easier on us. South Florida never really gets cold, so I don’t freeze when I turn off the shower spray. I guess that, if I did, though, I’d probably just look forward to wrapping up in my bath robe all the more. I also personally don’t mind the cold all that much.

It is interesting, though. I know you’ve probably been reading more about personal environmental change than we have, so you know that the overwhelming majority of information on green home climate control is about green home heating and not green home cooling. Down here in South Florida, it’s not uncommon for our temperatures to be above 75 degrees 10 months (or more) out of the year, and our summers often hover near 100 degrees every day. In other words, air conditioning is a year-round thing here, and there’s virtually nothing we can do to change it. On top of that, it’s so humid that if we didn’t run our air conditioner, mold would grow in the walls. Nobody out there seems to have come up with ways to deal with that.