Dawn at Frugal for life has posted about her tips and experiences with installing a new low flow shower head which is helpful for anyone who has not converted their shower yet (and an amusing read). She has also made a list of the new showerhead’s pros and cons.

Low flow shower heads save as much as 50% off your water bill as well as your energy bill (for not heating the extra water you didn’t use) which is good for the environment AND your savings account. Low flow shower heads mix air with the water to make it feel like there’s more pressure and to even out the flow.

Sanyo in Japan has announced the world’s first washing machine which not only offers a waterless air wash to replace having to send clothes to the dry cleaners but it also recycles water when you are using it’s water cycle. The super washing machine also dries clothes and kills bacteria.

With ‘AQUA’, which is the world’s first*1 washer/dryer to utilize ozone, which enables ‘reduction of water’ and ‘recycling of water’, SANYO has broken away from conventional thinking and is offering a completely new cleaning technology.

Aqua via The Sietch Blog

Eco-balls are an environmentally friendly alternative to using washing powder in your washing machine. They produce ionized oxygen that activates the water molecules naturally and allows them to penetrate the clothing fibres and lift dirt. They have many benefits.

1) There are no harsh chemicals which is good in a number of ways. Obviously less chemicals going down the drain is always a good thing.

2) The other benefit is that people with sensitive skin and chemical sensetivities will not have a problem with these.

3) You can skip the rinse cycle of your wash which means water and power savings as well as prolonging the life of your machine from less use and less washing powder build up.

4) You can reuse the waste water on your garden.

The initial cost is high but these balls are supposed to last for hundreds of washes which means they work out to be very low cost per wash.

Every day a huge amount of drinking water gets flushed down the toilet. It is estimated that around 40% of household water use in the US is in the form of flushing the toilet. This is a rather sad thought considering the fact that we are using up our earth’s water faster then it is being produced.

There is an immediate (free) solution you can use though. If you are still using an old style toilet which just simply uses too much water, you can use a displacement device to save some. A displacement device is a fancy phrase for putting some objects in the toilet’s water storage tank which take up some volume and therefore save that amount of water. You can use anything which won’t disintegrate in the water (if in doubt make sure to wrap it in some plastic). I filled some small bottles with water and placed those in the tank.

Of course there are many other ways of modifying the toilet to use less water but I think this is by far the easiest and one you can do right now. Every little bit counts!