Ultimate water saving stuff

[superathlete]

I've worked in water conservation and am compiling my list of the best available stuff on the market (as in most efficient).

General tips:
Reducing water usage, and its associated financial and environmental costs, requires good stuff and good practices. Be conscious of your usage for a couple weeks to find your inefficiencies.  Repair any leaks you may have.  If you have an older toilet used frequently that is leaking, replace it.  Now to my list.

Toilets:
Niagara Stealth. They have a new dual flush unit which is supposed to average out to 0.8 gallons per flush. I have two regular Stealths and they are very good toilets.
Sloan Flushmate 1.0 gallons per flush. Various manufacturers use Sloan Flushmate internals. These are excellent toilets, but do use more water than the Niagaras.

Showerheads:
I use Bricor models. The handheld and Ultramax (the lowest flow on the market).  My wife doesn't care for the Ultramax, but has long hair and is fine with the handheld. Guests use it without comment.
Alternatively, Niagara makes adjustable flow showerheads.  Shutoff valves are available and easy to install.
There are a whole lot of very good performing showerheads at 1.5 gpm.  I do not suggest higher than this flowrate.

Faucets:
Most faucets work with universal aerators.  For the bathroom, I have Bricor 0.375 gpm aerators.  They work great, but are kind of loud.  There are 0.35 gpm aerators made by other manufacturers, but I've not been satisfied with them. Most 0.5 gpm aerators I've usedwork fine.
I recommend the Niagara Trimax aerator for the kitchen. It can flow at 0.5/1.0/1.5 gallons per minute.  If you don't want this, aim for a 1.5 to 1.8 gpm aerator.

Appliances:
Washing machines.  Buy a CEE Tier 3 machine.  Most stores are now labeling these.  http://www.cee1.org/content/cee-program-resources
Dishwashers. Buy a quality Energy Star dishwasher.  They are used so infrequently and use so little water that we are getting to diminishing returns.  Energy Star does rate their most efficient yearly:  https://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=most_efficient.me_index

I hope this list helps. I know some people struggle with the replace just use more efficiently issue. I believe it is worth it to replace your showerheads and aerators now. If you have an older, good performing dishwasher, don't repair it when it breaks. If you have an ancient top loading washing machine and use hot or warm water, replace it immediately. If you live in a water-stressed place and use cold water, consider doing the right thing and getting something more efficient (ensure the old one is scrapped).

Check with your water utility to see if rebate programs are available for any of the above.

[nawhite]

Seeing as it the VAST majority of our water use, any recommendations for irrigation techniques or equipment? We are around 30 gal/day/person for non-irrigation purposes but irrigating our 2000 sq feet of yard uses another 200 gallons/day (on average and only during summer). We already limit ourselves to once per week in the morning and adjust times based on weather and sun/shade conditions of each portion of the lawn.

I guess the real answer is just Xeriscape the rest of the lawn (we have already replaced around half of it with gravel beds and gardens full of local plants). Unfortunately completely xeriscaping has a significant negative return on investment because it decreases the value of houses in our neighborhood right now.

[superathlete]

You hit the nail on the head regarding water use in much of the US.

Xeriscaping is the way to go for the portions of your yard which are not played in or used by pets.  You may also consider a rain garden, as these will likely require no supplemental irrigation once established. You are right to be concerned about property values, a lot of older xeriscaping in my area looks terrible, vast expanses of gravel not maintained now growing weeds.  Check your extension service or water provider (or water provider of a nearby large town) for specific plants which do well.  There may be a good grass species which use a lot less water (where I am, swapping cool season Kentucky Blue Grass or Tall Fescue for an improved Bermudagrass works well and will drop irrigation demand by 80% in a normal year, eliminating it if you are willing to allow some stress/dormancy). You may also consider planting some trees which do well in your area.  These typically improve property values when mature and don't need much irrigation.

As far as irrigation is concerned, first fix the obvious problems.  Don't water the house, driveway, roads, etc.  If runoff occurs, you need to change your time intervals.

If you have popups and see misting, your pressure is too high.  Consider getting Hunter MP Rotator nozzles to replace your spray heads, they lose a lot less to evaporation and apply water at a lower rate, reducing runoff. They are also mesmerizing to look at.  http://www.hunterindustries.com/irrigation-product/nozzles/mp-rotator  Also, I generally recommend installing pressure regulators to ensure ensure you aren't running too high of pressure for your nozzles.  Hunter makes some which you can do at the nozzle.

Rain barrels are great, but will not irrigate a 2000 square foot yard.

The final thing I might recommend is to find the commercial property with the nicest low water using landscaping. Talk to the manager and figure out who their landscaper is. Without knowing your property and neighborhood dynamics, it may be worth it to invest in their services for your front yard. From my experience, people want nice looking yards, they don't have to be covered in inappropriate species climate-wise.

[deborah]

Drippers rather than sprays

[pzxc]

I try not to outright waste water, but minimizing isn't very helpful to me because of the fixed portion of the water bill. [:(]

[nawhite]

I try not to outright waste water, but minimizing isn't very helpful to me because of the fixed portion of the water bill. [:(]

It may not be helpful to you, but it is always helpful to the people downstream from you :-) I don't know where you live, but if it is Colorado like me, I'm sure those people in California appreciate when I conserve a little so that they can, you know, have any.

[pzxc]

Actually, I'm in California, but the vast majority of water usage is by agriculture.  Residential use is such a small portion that, other than lawn watering and pool filling, it contributes very little to the total usage.

It's just a diminishing returns thing I guess.  I use less than average, but when $10 out of your $26 bill goes to fixed-cost (just being hooked up to the system) and another $10 goes to fixed-cost sewage service, it doesn't make much difference to worry about using the least amount of water possible when your bill would be $20 even if water usage was zero.  So I make sure the faucets aren't dripping, etc, but that's about it.

(Really, I do care about conservation, recycling, ecology and all that!  But my efforts are better spent at reducing the amount of plastic I use, than the amount of water I use, I think)

[superathlete]

Actually, I'm in California, but the vast majority of water usage is by agriculture.  Residential use is such a small portion that, other than lawn watering and pool filling, it contributes very little to the total usage.

It's just a diminishing returns thing I guess.  I use less than average, but when $10 out of your $26 bill goes to fixed-cost (just being hooked up to the system) and another $10 goes to fixed-cost sewage service, it doesn't make much difference to worry about using the least amount of water possible when your bill would be $20 even if water usage was zero.  So I make sure the faucets aren't dripping, etc, but that's about it.

(Really, I do care about conservation, recycling, ecology and all that!  But my efforts are better spent at reducing the amount of plastic I use, than the amount of water I use, I think)

Agriculture uses the vast majority of water everywhere. That is not a reason to not be conscious about household and business water usage. The costs to provide potable water into buildings is much higher than non-potable to a farm field. Chemical, energy and material usage are higher in potable water systems

If you care about these things, you change behavior.  Most of California's water is incredibly energy intensive due to massive diversions which often cross mountains.  Not being water efficient also means not (generally) being efficient with hot water. Where I am, heating water just about doubles the actual cost of water usage.  This will vary greatly upon incoming water temperature, type and efficiency of water heater and energy prices.

By the way, your water and sewer fees are incredibly cheap. Being in utilities, I can almost guarantee you these prices will be increasing by quite a bit, but it may be on the fixed cost side. The reality is that most water and sewer systems have low rates because they are not recovering depreciation from their current users.

If the town you live in is growing, the cheapest way to add people to is reduce water usage.  This avoids things like obtaining new water sources, treatment plant expansions, larger pipes, etc. Conservation is the cheapest water supply.

[dragoncar]

Seeing as it the VAST majority of our water use, any recommendations for irrigation techniques or equipment? We are around 30 gal/day/person for non-irrigation purposes but irrigating our 2000 sq feet of yard uses another 200 gallons/day (on average and only during summer). We already limit ourselves to once per week in the morning and adjust times based on weather and sun/shade conditions of each portion of the lawn.

I guess the real answer is just Xeriscape the rest of the lawn (we have already replaced around half of it with gravel beds and gardens full of local plants). Unfortunately completely xeriscaping has a significant negative return on investment because it decreases the value of houses in our neighborhood right now.

Got the same problem -- and agree that xeriscaping can look pretty terrible.  I hate to pull up perfectly fine plants and throw them in the garbage, but I might replace them with more drought-tolerant varieties some day. 

Right now, I'd suggest looking into a better irrigation controller -- there are kinds that have moisture sensors in the ground that will only water when the ground dries out, and kinds that predict dry soil based on real-time local weather reports for rain, humidity, etc.  I haven't taken this leap yet, but it's possible you are overwatering if doing so on a set schedule. 

Other tweaks to the previous owner's program -- water more deeply less often rather than briefly and often.  This encourages plants to grow their roots down.  From what I understand, the ideal is to wait until the soil is dry 6 inches down, and then water until the soil is wet 6 inches down.

As for xeriscaping -- should I just stop watering my plants entirely and see what dies?  Then replace those?

[deborah]

As for xeriscaping -- should I just stop watering my plants entirely and see what dies?  Then replace those?

Depends - if they haven't been in a year, it's they're still a bit tender. Also, where I live, we recently went through an eight year drought. Tens of thousands of street trees died even though they had been in for many years.