Save the earth's most precious resource while also saving yourself money. Laura Allen provides expert strategies for using water smartly and efficiently while fulfilling all of your home and garden needs. Learn how to create a water-wise landscape, reuse greywater, harvest rainwater, and even set up a waterless composting toilet. Offering proven techniques in clear and accessible language, The Water-Wise Home makes it easy to help the environment and lower your household operating costs through conserving water. Learn how to reduce water use in your home and build systems that reuse the water you do use.
Laura Allen is the author of The Water-Wise Home and cofounder of Greywater Action, a collaborative of educators who teach residents and tradespeople about affordable and simple household water systems that dramatically reduce water use and foster sustainable cultures of water. She leads classes and workshops, including the first training program for professional greywater installers, and participates in writing state government greywater and composting toilet codes. She lives in Eugene, Oregon. Part 1 Water-Wise Basics
Chapter 1 Why Conserve Water?
Reasons to Conserve Water - Where Does Your Water Come From? - What's a Water-Wise Home?
Chapter 2 What's Wrong with Our Water Systems?
The Good News and Bad News - Sources of Water - Why Is Water Scarce? - Sewage Treatment and Stormwater Pollution - When Rain Pollutes: Stormwater - A Better Water Future
Chapter 3 Saving Water in the Home and Landscape
Cultivating a Water-Conserving Ethic - Fix the Leaks! - The Mini Makeover - Does Your Landscape Have a Drinking Problem? - Designing a Water-Wise Landscape - Irrigation Systems - Greywater, Rainwater, and Waterless Toilets
Part 2 Water Wise Solutions
Chapter 4 Greywater Reuse: Planning Your Home System
Identify Your Greywater Sources - Your Home's Drain, Waste, and Vent System - Estimate Your Greywater Flows - Find the Flow Rates of Faucets, Showerheads, and Washing Machines - Soil Structure and Type - Identify Your Soil with a Soil Ribbon Test - Mulch Basins - Choosing Plants for Greywater Irrigation - How Much Water Do My Plants Want? - System Design Consideration - Plant-Friendly Soaps - When Greywater Is Not a Great Idea - Using Greywater to Flush - Health and Safety Considerations - Codes and Regulations
Chapter 5 Installing Your Greywater System
Choosing a Greywater System - Laundry-to-Landscape (L2L) System - Installing an L2L Irrigation System - Irrigation Options - Branch Drain Gravity-Fed System (Without Storage) - Installing a Branched Drain System - How to Wire an Actuator - Greywater System with Tank and Pump - Building a Pumped System - Manufactured Greywater Systems - Other Types of Greywater Systems - Plumbing Basics for Greywater Installation
Chapter 6 Rainwater Harvesting: Planning Your System
How Will You Use the Rainwater? - Keeping Rainwater in Your Landscape: Permeable Hardscape and Rain Gardens - Roofwater Collection - Basci Components of a Catchment System - Using Rain Indoors - Rainwater Containers - Codes and Regulations
Chapter 7 Building Rainwater Harvesting Systems
Planning and Designing a Rain Garden - Constructing a Rain Garden - Roofwater Collection Systems - Converting a Single 55-Gallon Barrel - Connecting Rain Barrels Together: A Daisy Chain - Installing an Aboveground Plastic Rainwater Tank - Irrigation Systems
Chapter 8 Waterless and Composting Toilets
Composting Is Composting - Toilet Types - Composting Toilets and the Law - Using Urine as Fertilizer - Choosing a Composting Toilet - Building a Sawdust Bucket Toilet - Building a Urine-Diverting Toilet - Compost Piles and Bins -Building a Barrel Composting Chamber with Netting
Resources
Acknowledgements
Index Even as severe droughts become more common and the water crisis heats up worldwide, you can radically reduce water
