Practical Means for Conserving Water and Energy

(Published April 14th, 2026)

Introduction

Water is likely the most important resource we have on this planet. The amount of ice and snow covering Earth’s north and south poles, serves as a reliable indicator for how well Earth’s water-reserves are actually holding up.

As ice and snow continues to melt across the polar ice-caps, the resultant influx of water which melts and seeps into earth's oceans, is what maintains its water-levels. When the polar ice-caps can no longer influence oceanic-temperatures nor their predominant currents, then Earth’s climate will change even more dramatically than it has thus far. As atmospheric temperatures rise, so do evaporation-rates. We need to continually remind ourselves that water is a valuable-resource which sustains planetary life.

The woes to our planet can certainly be changed. It's not our planet's population that's bringing it down, it's our technology! The following text, outlines a few practical measures towards conservation.

Household-Water Waste

Quite-typically within a residence, the largest amount of water that gets wasted, is what purposely goes down the drain while we wait for running tap-water to rise in temperature.

• Based upon an average eight-minute shower, approximately 15-17 US gallons of water is consumed. Through studies, it’s been determined that 10-30% of this water is merely wasted due to pre-shower warmups. 
• Substantial preheating commonly occurs at the kitchen sink as well. A kitchen-sink is used five to fifteen times daily for soaking dishes, cleaning dishes, washing hands, and filling pots. 
• Similarly, hot-water is wasted as we preheat bathroom-sink faucets. The length of time that it takes for tap-water to warm-up, can approach the same-length of time that it takes to wash one’s hands.

From the municipality's standpoint, it’s often assumed that whatever volume-of-water gets used within a particular home, this exact-same amount later returns to the sewer-system. Where I live (Ontario, Canada) our monthly water-bill gets divided between “water usage charges” and “waste-water usage charges”. Although costs here can differ, the volume-of-water shown on the bill is exactly the same for both cases.

The length of time it takes for a running-facet to reach temperature, depends upon a few basic facts. 

• The piping distance between the water-heater and the faucet in question.
• The difference between the water-heater's set-point in degrees and the preferred-temperature at the usage-point.
• The unique flow-dynamics leading up to the usage-point in question. The internal pipe-diameter and particular type of shower-head largely determines the flow-rate and preheat waiting-time.
• The type of Insulation which wraps around the water-pipes or the absence thereof, is also an important factor for determining preheating times.

If you wish study the dynamics of your own home’s plumbing, then you can measure the amount-of-water which typically gets wasted during these preheats. A simple way to do this, is by using a graduated-bucket to measure the wasted water.

Collect the water from the moment you turn on the faucet until you sense a fast-rise in water-temperature. By repeating this experiment with a few different faucets in your home and estimating how often these faucets get used every day, you should be able to arrive at a dollar-amount for potential savings.

As far as utility-expenses go, it’s not just the water itself we need to be concerned with, but the fact that a significant amount of energy was used to create the hot-water in the first place. Generally speaking, any type of load which produces heat is the most expensive part of our utility-bills.

Methods for Conserving Water and Energy within the Home

Eliminating Faucet Preheat-Time

In order to virtually eliminate faucet-water preheat-times, a recirculation system can be installed that preheats the piping-system before the water ever gets discharged from the faucet. By pushing a button that’s local to the hot-water-faucet in question, water then loops through the water-heater until a predetermined-temperature is reached at the faucet. Although this add-on is slightly more complex than a typical plumbing-system, it should certainly eliminate most of the wasted-hot-water.

Raising the Temperature of the Hot-water Tank’s Supply.

An important-bit of information which is often-times ignored, is the fact that the hot-water-tank’s supply-line which comes into the home, comes directly up from the unusually-cold ground.

According to X’s Grok, the temperature of a home’s incoming water-supply, is similar to that of the following.

• In the Northern States, Alaska, and parts of Canada: 35–50°F (2–10°C).
• Within the Mid-latitude / temperate areas such as the Midwest: 50–60°F (10–16°C).
• In the warmer areas of the south like Florida and Texas: 60–75°F (16–24°C)
  

So depending upon season and location, the home’s incoming water-temperature could be anywhere from as high as 75°F (24°C) down to 35° F (2° C).

As an example, if your home’s room-temperature is nominally 70° F (21° C) and the incoming water-temperature is 55°F (13° C), then your hot-water tank has to raise the water temperature 15° F (8° C) just to obtain room-temperature. Essentially, this is a waste of energy.

If you would like to check the temperature of your home's incoming-water supply, then run a cold-water tap for a couple of minutes and then check its discharge temperature.

One viable-option here for improving your utility bills, is to insert a preheater into the hot-water-tank's cold-water supply. There are a number of options in order to accomplish this. Using a solar-powered preheater here is perhaps the most obvious answer here. Another means of obtaining free-energy for a preheater, is to extract heat-energy from your home’s waste-water before it goes down the sewer.

Methods for Conserving Water and Energy within Production Plants

Much of what we've just discussed regarding preheat-times and having to heat cold-water coming up from the ground, also applies to production-plants. However, within production-plants - water not only supports the people working there, but also the production-equipment itself. Some plants use a pile of water!

Often-times within these production-plants, there are not only preheat-times to be concerned about, but cooling-times as well. In order for the company to consistently produce top-quality products as well as protect their equipment - stable and consistent water-temperatures are required here as well.

Once of the easiest ways to save water and energy within a production-plant, is to merely keep it running. This staves-off undue preheat-times and merely wasting energy caused from start-ups and shut-downs. Further, keeping the plant running minimizes the amount of product that often-times gets scrapped due to poor start-ups. 

Ideally, machines neither stop nor slow down during shift-changes. Much the same principles apply for production-facilities which we used just earlier, in order to determine water and energy wastes within the home.

Air Conditioning

Whereas points we've discussed thus far, regarding water and energy savings were based upon a common-sensed approach; the subject of room-temperature and one's comfort becomes a little more personal.

Air conditioning as we understand it today, didn't evolve until the 20th century. To a great extent, this is why architectures of the past are not often repeated today. Particularly for homes. The older and larger-homes with their majestically-high ceilings became just too expensive to heat and cool. Whereas architectures of the past allowed for natural convection and a certain amount of cooling from the outdoors, most of our homes today are quite the opposite.   

Within the USA on average, the cooling costs for homes is about 19% of the electricity-bill. In warmer areas however, this percentage increases substantially. Quite-typically, air-conditioning is the single-largest use of a home's electricity. In certain areas, air-conditioning systems uses up to 50% of the homes electricity during summer months.

Concerning gasoline and electric cars, the percentage of fuel/electricity-costs used for air-conditioning is anywhere from 3 % to about 25 or 30 %. These numbers obviously depend a lot upon the local-climate and personal preferences.

In a manner of speaking, the use of air-conditioning is kind of like a runaway train on planet-earth. The more energy we use for air-conditioning, the warmer our planet becomes. The warmer our planet becomes, the more we tend to rely upon air-conditioning. It's an ever-increasing cycle!

Whereas much of the earth was once predominantly green that helped to cool the air, produced oxygen, removed CO2 and VOCs; we now see these same areas filled with bare-earth, concrete, or black-pavement which easily absorbs and stores heat-energy from the sun.

Although there are no easy answers here, I believe that we need to utilize more  natural-convection within our homes and promote natural cooling from the outdoor-air. Although we might disagree upon how to cool one's local environment, I think we can all agree that surely we should be breathing as much fresh-air as possible.

Usually when we jump into a car that's been parked under the hot-sun, its internal air-temperature is quite unbearable. Usually, the first thing we do here is open the windows. After we start the car, we then turn on the air-conditioner. After driving a few-minutes to get the latent-heat out of the car, only then do we completely close its windows. I find that this to be a typical scenario, even though the outdoor-air temperature to begin with, was quite comfortable before I hopped into the car. 

With this scenario in mind, if there was always a fan running which continuously pulled fresh-air into the car while it was parked, then perhaps the air-conditioner wouldn't be required to run in many cases. As a potential-solution here, if part of the car's roof was designed to collect solar-power, then perhaps the electricity produced could power a small circulating-fan to retrieve fresh-air. This way, when the sun was shining the fan would be on, and when it didn't shine - the fan would be off.

Now, I realize that the amount of power extracted from the sun here using photovoltaics, wouldn't normally be enough to cool down the car's interior on a very-hot day. However, if the fan brought in enough fresh-air to at least minimize the heat-buildup, I think it would be quite worthwhile. In any event, we wouldn't be breathing in so many toxic fumes which commonly get trapped within a car's interior.

By utilizing solar-power here, a small-fan could run indefinitely without compromising the electric-charge on the car's main battery. Further, one wouldn't have to worry about leaving a window cracked open while it was parked.

In order to accommodate this new arrangement, the car itself would have to be designed to allow for a certain amount fresh-air to enter and exit the vehicle via natural-convection. A convection of air would have to occur, even if the car's windows remained totally shut. The fan here could be used to merely accelerate the natural-convection process.

Here's hoping that I've peaked your interest, so at least one of these ideas begins to take root. If you wish to read about a more ambitious endeavor which harvests clean-water out from the earth, this particular-link will take you to the appropriate page. 

Gasoline Conservation
 (Addendum)

There is one more thing I would like to add here concerning conservation as a whole, and that concerns the vapour emitted from liquid gasoline; or petrol, as many folks describe it. I understand that more could be done in order to collect gasoline-vapour from common refueling-stations.

Obviously here in Canada, we refer to these refueling-stations as gas-stations, whereas other countries may refer to them as simply petrol-stations. The following write-up is basically a quick synopsis as to the state of gasoline-vapour recovery within common refueling-stations.  

Within these gas-stations, there are regulations which apply to both Stage-I and Stage-II Gasoline Vapour Recovery Systems (GVRSs) here in North America. Stage-I concerns the refilling of underground storage-tanks while being filled from a gasoline tanker-truck, whereas Stage-II concerns the refilling of automobiles and trucks at the pump.

Importantly, vapours released from gasoline into the atmosphere contain hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs from gasoline-vapour include products such as benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylene. Chronic exposure from these chemicals increases risks for cancer, neurological issues and respiratory issues. Further, every-day activities within refueling-stations which release gasoline into the environment (in the form of either vapour or liquid) - contributes to greenhouse gas and higher ozone-levels.

The regulations within the USA and Canada for these Gasoline Vapour Recovery Systems (GVRSs), can vary greatly from one area to the next. Many of these regulations hinge upon a certain populous-base before they come into affect; whereby remote-areas, could escape regulations altogether.

Generally speaking, Stage-I GVRSs are much more common and standardized within the USA than within Canada. If I interpret this correctly, many of these installations still rely upon voluntary enforcement.

It seems that there is only one state which is still serious about Stage-II GVRS systems, and that’s California. Oregon and Nevada do have mandates, but only for particular areas.

Notably, Canada has never federally-mandated Stage-II GVRS systems. Other than perhaps voluntary installations, I don’t believe that any of the Canadian provinces mandate Stage-II GVRSs, and just certain areas of British Colombia and Ontario actually mandate Stage-I GVRSs.

It seems that within the USA, Stage-II GVRSs were once taken seriously primarily due to ozone considerations. In some cases, justification for eliminating these Stage-II GVRS systems, occurred since there's not nearly as much benzene within the fuel as there once was. Likely more to the point, a lot of the reason for eliminating Stage-II GVRSs, was due to their high cost of maintenance.

With these Gasoline Vapour Recovery Systems, the recovered fuel-vapour normally gets returned to the delivery-truck for Stage-I installations, and gets returned to the underground storage-tank for Stage-II installations. During time of recovery, the fuel-vapour condenses back into a liquid. Both Stage I and Stage II systems are easily above 90% efficient when they are well maintained.

Areas of Concern

Assuming that the ORVR systems are quite efficient for post 2006 vehicles, then I believe the weak-part of what we've been discussing here within the USA and Canada: is the scarcity of Stage-I GVRS systems in Canada and any pre-2006 vehicles which may still be on the road.

It seems that Stage-I GVRSs within the USA are fairly well adopted, other than perhaps some low-volume refueling-stations. Canada however, has a ways to go. It seems that within Canada, the amount of refueling-stations which utilize Stage-I GVRS systems, is perhaps thirty-percent or less.

As a precaution here for your personal vehicle, ensure that it has a decent-seal around the nozzle as you fill it up. Also, if you have difficulty filling the gas-tank or notice an undue strong fuel smell, then have a mechanic check the vehicle's charcoal canister. Additionally, ensure there's no significant blow-back of vapour while filling the tank so you're not breathing the fumes.

Costs

From stats Canada, based upon gross-sales for the year 2024, Canadian gasoline consumption was 43.8 billion-litres.

• Roughly 0.125–0.14% of this overall liquid volume would have been lost to vapour if there were no Stage-I GVRSs whatsoever.
• Using 0.14% as an example, this means that there would have been 61.32 million litres of liquid gasoline lost (due to vapour) out of the original 43.8 billion litres.
• Assuming that approximately 30% of Canada's refueling-stations utilize Stage-I GVRSs, then instead of 61.32 million litres of fuel wasted, there's now (just) 42.924 million litres wasted per year and going into the environment.
• So, at today's prices which is approximately $1.70 per litre - this is  just shy of $73 million Canadian dollars per year.

So, as a very-rough estimate - approximately 42.9 million litres of gasoline is wasted here in Canada each year, due to the scarcity of Stage-I GVRSs. Currently, this equates to a retail-cost of $73 million CA dollars per year!!

Please note, what I have described thus far doesn't address liquid-spills and such, I have merely focused upon wasted fuel-vapour at gas stations. This is is something that can be quantified based upon consumption. I have not addressed gasoline-spills and such, which are likely much higher in volume.

Rev. 260420

Destinations

Follow Lawrention on X

Follow on Truth Social

Sharing

XPinterestWhatsAppTumblr