In Phase III of Project Get Off the Grid (for those who haven’t been reading previous posts on Project Get Off the Grid, click here to catch up), I haven’t made many changes. Differing variables in the 2008 and 2009 periods of Phase II, namely a ten-day trip to Mexico in 2008, during which I used virtually no electricity, have made a comparison of the two periods difficult. Therefore, in order to get a better idea of the effects my behavioral changes made in Phase II, I’m not doing anything drastic during Phase III.

I have, however, made one small change. I installed a low-flow Evolve shower-head in my shower. Low-flow shower-heads are officially classified as those that use 1.5 gallons of water per minute or less, and Evolve, a company strictly devoted to making eco-friendly shower-heads, has developed a low-flow shower-head that has another water-saving feature.

For whatever crappy plumbing-related reason, I have to run my shower for a few minutes before the water is warm enough for me to comfortably step in, which means I often turn my water on and then leave the bathroom to occupy myself with other things for a bit – checking my email, watching Sportscenter’s Top Ten, etc. More often than not, I return to a shower that is already spraying – and wasting – hot water. I’m sure there are a lot of folks out there like me.

Evolve’s sleek, low-flow shower-heads are specially equipped to turn off once the water temperature reaches a comfortable 95 degrees. When I’m ready to get into the shower, I simply pull a little cord on the shower-head and the water turns on immediately, already at shower temperature. That way, I can watch Sportscenter, check emails, and mess around with Pandora radio stations to my heart’s content, all the while not worrying about wasting any hot water. When I’m ready, I just get into the shower, pull the cord, and I’ve got hot water.

How does this relate to Project Get Off the Grid? Well, it not only saves hot water, it also saves energy, which is used to heat water. When hot water runs down the drain, we’re not only wasting water, we’re wasting energy, which gets tacked right on to our Duke Energy bills.

Although I think the low-flow and turn-off features of my new shower-head will probably save me some water, I won’t be able to quantify it, because I don’t get billed specifically for water use. I’ll admit the lower pressure probably lengthens my showers a bit, but not by much. As far as the energy savings go, I think they will be minimal, but hey, every little bit counts. Try out an Evolve shower-head and you’ll save water, energy, and, eventually, even money.

The Perfect Flush interface, pretty self-explanatory.

Toilets use a tremendous amount of water. 40% of household indoor water is used for toilet flushing and we flush approximately 55 billion gallons of water each day. The numbers are pretty staggering, and ever since I saw my first dual-flush toilet many years ago in Europe, I’ve considered our standard one-flush toilets to be absurdly wasteful. When it comes to the old deuce, fine, flush flush flush away, but do we really need three gallons of water to flush down an innocent little pool of pee? Absolutely not. Unfortunately, despite being widely implemented in Europe, dual-flush toilets haven’t taken hold in the U.S., mainly due to a high price tag and the low price of water.

In my recent attempts at greenification, I’ve been combating my “flush guilt” by abiding by the old adage, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” However, even though I’m not at all squeamish (quite the opposite, actually), I’ve concluded that I find reusing the mellowing, yellowing, aging pool in my toilet pretty damn nasty, especially on those dehydrated weekend mornings.

However, thanks to Karl Burkart’s blog entry (check out Karl’s actual blog, too, a great site discussing the latest in green tech featured on the Mother Nature Network web page), I may have found my answer. Perfect Flush, an easy to install toilet gadget, turns any standard toilet into a dual-flush toilet, so we don’t have to let anything mellow and we can still save water whenever a full flush isn’t absolutely necessary. Perfect Flush will sell for about $120 and the makers claim water savings with Perfect Flush can reach $100 a year, which means break-even and, ultimately, savings can be achieved relatively quickly.

Unfortunately, it appears as if the product won’t be available until May of this year, which means, for at least another few months, I’ll be “letting it mellow”. You should, too.