Collapsible Rain Barrels at Costco

Last January I blogged about ordering a collapsible rain barrel from an online vendor.

Last night I saw that Costco has them for $55 on that main aisle that you walk beside when you enter the store (in Durham).

100 gallon capacity. Looks really sturdy. We got one last night. Don't know how fast they'll go off the shelves, but this is just an FYI if you haven't gotten a rain barrel yet. And it has a spout made into it already.

It's made by "Heaven + Earth" and it looks pretty much like the one on this page. I couldn't find it on Costco's website.

It's Raining McCain!

I call them The "Whether" Girls. I say "Whether" because I can't figure out whether it's parody, or it's sincere. Either way, and for so many reasons, it scores high on the WTF scale.



The original & classic Weather Girls video here. Music written by Paul Schaffer, oddly enough. A 1980's dance club sensation, to say the least. It even has its own wiki page.

18 gallons of water per person per day this bill!

If I'm doing the math right, that consumption of 3 units shown below, during the time period it covers, means that in this household of 2 people, we averaged a daily usage of around 18.3 gallons per person. I blogged about calculating usage based on your bill information here.

No measures that seemed drastic to us were used. There were no extended trips out of town either. We did install an ultra-low showerhead that I talked about here and it does a great job. We eat on paper plates more. We are more conscientious about usage overall and don't plan on changing too much now that the water levels are back up at the reservoirs. I figure a long dry period is coming up, as it has consistently the past few years, and this time I'll be ready for it more than ever.


Apparently some households are using a lot more, as much as 60 or more units per month, according to an interesting discussion over at Barry's blog here. I hope there will be more information forthcoming about the issue of new housing and water consumption.

Review/Update for my new supa-dupa showerhead.

Updating my recent blogging about my new ultra-low showerhead with the on-off button, which was here.

It installed quite easily and it works very well. To recap, most low-flows are rated 2.5 gallons per minute flow, but this one is 1.9 gpm. Plus the on-off button makes it easy to stop and start the water while maintaining the temperature. Yes, I am a gadget freak.

Anyway, all I did was unscrew the old one (which was a regular low flow), and screw in the new one. No muss, no fuss, no leaks. Here's me taking off the old one. As an aside, my bathroom really is that orangey-red color:



I cannot tell a difference in the spray. There's plenty of spray and it flows out with appropriate force. The button that temporarily turns off the flow works like a charm. It turns off the flow and when you press it again to turn the flow back on, it is the same warm temperature as when you stopped the flow. So if you've been wanting an on-off button or an even lower-flow showerhead, this one I can vouch for as a satisfied customer. Here it is doing its thing:




Odd what passes for fun and excitement at my house.

Excitement! My new showerhead is here already.

Oh yes, of course I already had a low-flow showerhead. But this one is even lower-flowing in terms of GPM (gallons per minute). And this one comes complete with a shut-off switch on it--so my water will stay the same temp while I'm shampooing and lathering up with the flow turned off. Flip the switch back on to rinse off.

I ordered it online and it came in 2 days. It was inexpensive too, imho. Brand name is "Whedon."

Ace Hardware Outlet here.

How to calculate your water usage

Of course we've been cutting water usage at our house but I hadn't yet taken the step of calculating exactly how many gallons per day we were using. Putting it in terms of gallons makes it more real to me. The water bill actual shows "units" of usage which is more abstract and frankly not very helpful. ("One unit is equal to one hundred cubic feet (ccf) or 748 gallons of water.")

So I found a couple of useful links from The City of Durham's website that showed me how to calculate my usage:

How to read your water bill & calculate usage from that information.

and

How to find and read your water meter and calculate usage from that information.


Doing the calculations, it looks like that in my household (2 people) we averaged 33 gallons per person per day for the period of time from 9/12/2007 to 11/10/2007.

We're going to try to get it lower, shooting for the 25 gallons per day that Barry blogged about here.

These collapsible rain barrels look sensible.

Pop Up Rain Barrel.

Made of flexible, puncture-resistant laminated polyester, this ingenious rain barrel holds up to 45 gallons of water. The wide top zips open for easy dipping, and a mesh screen keeps debris out. Includes pre-installed garden hose thread and cap. Folds to a mere 4" H for easy storage.

Wide top zips open for easy dipping

Zippered mesh screen keeps debris out

I've shopped this site before with satisfaction and no troubles, gardners.com.

I'm going to get one for sure.