Water Water Everywhere!

The first section of my project that I researched during week 4 was the WATER section. I decided to focus on finding where the water came from that reaches the faucets of the sinks and showers on the Hill. I discovered that UCLA has pretty efficient water heating systems for the residence halls. The four residence halls on the Hill, which each house 1,000 students plus, are equipped with 125 solar panel systems each. In Rieber, Hedrick and Sproul, 10,000 gallon storage tanks house the water that is heated during the day by such solar power. This is unlike the water heating system in Dykstra, as this residence hall only has a 5,000 gallon storage tank. Never fear, though! The heated water from Dykstra is not wasted and is actually used in the kitchens of De Neve. The water from the residence halls eventually finds its way from the storage tanks to the boilers in these residence halls. Because the water is already at a higher temperature, as it has been absorbed the sun’s heat all day, the boilers only need to raise the water 20 degrees higher rather than the usual 40 degrees higher from cooler city water. This also allows the buildings to use less natural gas to heat the water. From this initial research, I was really impressed as I truly had no idea that UCLA was so green in their water heating systems.

On the housing website, I also found that ALL of the shower heads and sink faucets on the Hill are “low flow.” This means that water flow is reduced to these fixtures leading to a significant overall decrease in the amount of water that the buildings on the Hill use. Toilets in Sproul and Covel are also low flow. Fortunately, as of 2008 UCLA has begun to replace any broken plumbing devices with equipment that is low flow – if a toilet breaks in Hedrick Hall, they will automatically replace it with a low flow toilet.

Overall, I believe that UCLA – specifically on the Hill and even on campus – is implementing an immense amount of pragmatic ordeals to decrease UCLA’s water intake. On campus, UCLA recovers and reuses clean water. Water from non-contaminated sources is collected in the campus cooling towers located under the Ronald Reagan Hospital. Recovering water has saved an average annual amount of $200,000 per year. The monetary benefit of saving water is definitely proof of the changes UCLA has made to conserve water in the past decade. Hopefully in the future as more dorms and buildings are built on campus to accommodate the ever-growing student body, UCLA housing will implement green building techniques to make UCLA a more sustainable place.

Want to reduce your water usage while living in the dorms? Here are some tips to help you.
1. Combine loads of laundry and make sure you have full loads
Try not to wash multiple loads of laundry when needed. If you know your colors do not bleed, why bother making a separate load for these colors? A typical top-loading washing machine uses about 40 gallons of water per load – this number clearly becomes larger as you increase the number of loads you do.
2. Never let the water run
I learned this from Barney, so I think it is time we all implement this rule. It is a simple thing to do that allows you save 1 or more gallons of water.
3. Take shorter showers
Try to time yourself! Taking long showers wastes water (hot water at that!) and time! Each day, aim for a shorter shower until you can take a shower around 5 minutes. Lower your shower time by 1 minute each day. Thankfully there are no bathtubs to soak in at UCLA – doing so may waste 40 gallons of water.