May 2013

SLOW THE FLOW AND SAVE THE H2O REDUCING ONE CUBIC METER OF WATER AT A TIME
INNOVATIVE HUMAN IMPACTS/ SUSTAINABLE LIVING - WATER CONSERVATION

ISSUE NO. 17

The Situation
What does it really take for a family of four to reduce their water usage? There has been a clear impact on the completion of specic goals to reduce the water usage in my household. This was achieved by having an organized plan and modifying elements to reduce the usage. There are 5 main sectors involved in the plan for water conservation. To begin with, with great effort our family has not only gotten accustomed to turn off tap while washing teeth but also limiting shower time to 5 minutes. Also, we are now only watering the plants in the garden when its necessary instead of daily. Lastly, we are now only using the washing machine when theres a full load. Without the help of our post-it note method, I reect that our decrease in water usage wouldnt of been as successful. Post -it notes were productive reminders to help my family achieve better results for the water conservation plan. In October, when we implemented this method into our plan, it was much easier to be aware of our actions to reduce the usage. These post-its were placed in specic locations where water conservation had to take place. An example of this would be one on the washing machine that read Full loads before washing. Reecting on the data above, it is clear that there has been a successful reduction in my families water usage because in August, there was a consumption of 40 cubic meters and in March it was down to 27.

I can tell that I was very motivated and determined to reduce the water usage because there was a signicant decrease to 33 cubic meters in September, I was constantly reminding my family to stick with the plan. However, later on in October, I started lost the consistency with the plan and 2 weeks into the month I came up with the post- it note method that really reminded my family to reduce the water usage. After then, every month the cubic meters decreased throughout the year. More specically, in month 4, December, there was only a consumption of 18 cubic meters due to the Christmas holidays in which my family travelled and werent in the house for half of the month. By complying with our goals, our households water usage is decreasing as the months y by. We will make a prediction to nd out in how many months our family will only use up 10 cubic meters of water per month.

continued on page 2

Steps into making predictions!

Linear Relationships and Trends Conclusion

Considering that the tted line is an example of linear decay, this matches with the fact that the trends of my families cubic meters of water consumption was mostly decreasing throughout the entire year. There is a clear relationship between the line and the trend. When the data is represented on the graph, the slope of the line is negative. The less cubic meters of water used per month, the higher the negative slope will be. Although the tted line is not exact, its a great way to make predictions and because it is done through mathematics and because of this, the prediction has a higher chance to be the most accurate. There is a clear interconnection between the efforts my family put into the water usage within the household and how they impacted the data in that respective month. This is seen on my graph and explained above, all the actions my family made had an impact, thats why every drop counts.

Once I made the tted line on the graph, I chose 2 points (3, 32) and (5, 30). With these two points. I then found the steepness of the line by using the formula:

With this formula I got the slope of -1. My next step was to apply this formula into the slope intercept form, y=mx + b. So far, this is how my formula looked like, y=-1x+b. I still needed to determine what was the y intercept. In order to achieve this, I had to insert any point on my graph to the equation. These are the following steps of how I found b using the point (5, 30). y = -1x + b 30 = -1(5) + b 30 = -5 + b 35 = b Therefore, my equation is now y= -1x + 35. Please note that because this equation has a negative slope, the line in the graph is an example of linear decay. I will now use this equation to predict in how many months my family will use 10 cubic meters of water. Now that I have the equation, I simply had to substitute the 10 with the y and then solve for x. The equation for the prediction looks like this, 10= -1x + 35. Here are the steps into solving this equation: 10 cubic meters = -1x + 35 -25 = -x 25 = x

With this information, I know that it will take about 25 months after august to reduce my families water usage to 10 cubic meters if the efforts for the reduction are constantly applied. This is because x stands for the number of months after August. This can be simplied to 2 years and a month, meaning that next September, our families water usage should be down to only 10 cubic meters of water!

Always good to keep in mind!

ADDITIONAL INFO: HOUSEHOLD WATER USE

Tips! 1. Refrain from us ing your toilet as a trash can for tissues etc. 2. Use trash cans instead of disposals because th ey use a great deal of wate r 3. S t o p s l e a k i n g faucets (even the smallest of leaks can waste 20 gallons a day) 4. Install low ow aerators and shower heads

Tips for improving domestic water conservation!