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> I'm already paying 10-times more for water usage than I spend on gas Are you irrigating an enormous yard?
by sarchertech 1mo ago
> I'm already paying 10-times more for water usage than I spend on gas
Are you irrigating an enormous yard?
- edoceo 1mo agoMaybe they mean consumption is the same but price is up.
- sarchertech 1mo agoThe only way I can read what they wrote to mean that is if they are saying water costs $30-40 a gallon.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- iLemming 1mo agoHave you never used a garden hose? Do you know that a regular, average hose left running overnight can waste like 5,000 gallons of water? My HOA enforces a rule - you must keep at least two trees per household. Trees need water. Not that much, of course, I shared the overnight hose number just for the sense of measure. Now you do the math - couple of trees, bathrooms, showering, drinking, cooking - that water usage adds up.
- deleted 1mo ago[deleted]
- blks 1mo agoTrees don’t grow otherwise in that area? Like if you would stop watering, will they die? Future proof solution could be selling and buying somewhere where climate change won’t hit as hard, eg north, but I guess not everyone can afford that, and cooler regions may not offer sufficient sustenance or infrastructure like schools and jobs.
- adammarples 1mo agoIf you live in what sounds like the desert and you're constantly watering your trees, it might be the case that you've picked non-native species that don't handle heat well. Check out the crime pays but botany doesn't on YouTube, he does a lot of videos about this, people in Texas etc planting English oaks and needing to water them all the time while native species are ignored or cut down because they're "messy".
- sarchertech 1mo agoI mean sure don’t leave a garden hose running overnight. That’s insane. If you leave it running next your house you’ll flood your basement. You said you had a pool though. That and trying to keep 2 non native trees alive in the desert is probably equivalent to irrigating a large yard.
- taneq 1mo agoOr driving a small, economical car?
- sarchertech 1mo agoEven if you’re driving a Prius and getting 50mpg, if you’re “driving all the time” you’re spending at least $100 a month in gas. There’s nowhere in the country where a water bill is $1000 a month unless you’re doing a lot of irrigation.
- mrexroad 1mo agoI read the comment as an overview of their utility costs—natural gas, not gasoline.
- sarchertech 1mo agoOP confirmed it was gasoline.
- parineum 1mo agoI assume they mean natural gas
- iLemming 1mo agoNo, I meant exactly in the petrol sense. Darn americanims - you never know if gas is gasoline, or poison, anesthetic, or flatulence, or you're just being gaslighted.
- iLemming 1mo agoNo, but I have a pool and it's been drying up below the skimmers, I need to keep the water level or the filtration dies.
- vachina 1mo agolol. What a first world problem to have. Sounds like a very solvable problem too (remove the pool then)
- iLemming 1mo agoThank you captain. I'm sure this would greatly reduce the climate change effects. Doing it posthaste - the world needs saving.
- jazzpush2 1mo agoTo be fair, you were the one complaining about water costs as if it was a climate-related issue, when it's... your pool.
- iLemming 1mo agoHaha. I guess you imagined "Deep Dive Dubai" or something? My pool is basically an oversized bathtub. We would've called it exactly that if it was installed inside the house.
- chneu 1mo agoTragedy of the commons. It's not just you. It's you + the millions of people using the same "I'm a unique snowflake" logic. If 8 billion people can't do it, maybe consider not doing it.
- pvaldes 1mo agoA sheet of plastic floating in the surface while you don't use it could help to reduce the evaporation. If is a big pool put some holes here and there to allow air access if somebody or a pet falls into the pool. Some marginal plants strategically placed and Nymphaeas can shadow the water (reduce the amount of heat that reaches the water), but you would have a very different kind of pool then and they have their own maintenance issues. If your area allows the culture of columnar cactus and succulents, use it near the pool to provide shadow. They will rarely trow anything into the water and may be beautiful to see by itself. Look for the less vicious species like Euphorbia or Pilosocereus azureus that are strongly vertical while young, refreshing to see (blue is blue) and will not pose any problem if cultured in a wooden raised bed. The idea would be to make a short wall using the cactus as logs placed a few dm apart to allow the wind passing trough. You will need to avoid the access to cats protecting the dirt with a mesh, aizoaceae, gravel or rocks. Allow a lot of space for the roots. A small pot will not really work. Cactus or succulents allowed to grow on the roof or near the house will act also as fire retardants (but not fire supressors) as they accumulate water.