8 surprising ways to lower your water use! (2014, house)

[HollyhockGarden]

Hello Folks --
I thought this would be a good topic for a hot day.....

While browsing the CityLab website, I came across an interesting article about the current drought. The article had some interesting water conservation methods that they are encouraging folks to use.
Here it is:The Drought-Era 'No Excuses' Guide to Conserving Water - CityLab.

[phenomenon]

I liked the advice to stop irrigating your lawn and letting it turn brown. It's not natural to have lush green grass in the middle of the desert in the Summertime. Growing plants that are not native to the desert environment also upsets the ecosystem. I have a friend who moved to Arizona years ago to help soothe his pollen allergies - the desert air was supposed to clean and pollen free. But now with everybody growing a jungle in their back yard, the pollen count has increased dramatically and his hayfever has returned.

[DetroitN8V]

I knew this would drag the grass nazis out. I like my grass and so do my dogs. You may be happy with a rock pit for a yard, but I wouldn't be. What happened to live and let live?

[kell490]

I like grass it cools off fast keep my home cool my drive way last night using an IR thermal temperature gun I found was 109 at 8:40pm my grass was a nice 71 degrees. My lawn is irrigated so my water bill is $100 a year.

[BlueCat1105]

I think all that gravel and concrete is helping to create a heat sink. I like the idea of a little green as well to help cool things down. There are lots of low water varieties of grass and that is what I'll be putting in my yard for my pups as well.

[cacto]

Dirt, as in natural desert soil, with well done xeriscaping and some palo verdes and mesquites can look really nice. That's using some smaller native shrubs and cactos as well as the shade trees. I know it won't catch on as the most popular type of yard but it's the best option as gravel radiates heat at night and reflects it during the day.

[stevek64]

What's amazing is when you drive by a farm, especially on a hot summer desert night, and feel the cool that radiates from that farm and then drive away from it and feel the difference in temperature.

I agree. Plant material can certainly keep things cooler in the surrounding area. We have a very large Mesquite tree and it shades the front of our south facing house nicely, including a garage door with windows, that no doubt keeps the garage and home much cooler. And planting tough desert shrubs that look nice that can tolerate heat(like a hopseed shrub) against a block fence cuts back big time on reflected heat from the fence.

btw, speaking of plant material, lawns, and cutting back on water, has anyone tried artificial turf at their home? A company trying to sell artificial turf left a sample in our driveway the other day and it looked realistic to my eyes, right down to the bits of brown blades. Not sure if it would really do anything to knock down the temp of a surrounding area but certainly needs no water.

[HX_Guy]

It wouldn't do anything, actually the opposite, as it's basically plastic that will heat up like crazy and then radiate the heat back out at night.

[stevek64]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

It wouldn't do anything, actually the opposite, as it's basically plastic that will heat up like crazy and then radiate the heat back out at night.

Just did a quick search and there's product that actually does block the heat:

HeatBlock Technology » SYNLawn

I'm more interested in people's experience with the look and feel of it in a larger backyard setting.

[HX_Guy]

Hmm, I'd be interested to see some actual temperature numbers and not just some graph they put together which seems misleading. They are saying that this is basically only get as hot as 85% of how hot a standard synthetic lawn would get? That's isn't very comforting as an SRP study found that synthetic grass got up to 165º, though it did say that it didn't radiate the heat back out like asphalt does.

Also found this in a review online...

"The temperature of the grass got up to 175 degrees in the "X". Even with the screens on, the temperature on the grass is so hot, children's skin should not touch it if the grass is in direct sunlight. "

Obviously I'm bias toward real grass..I would rather just do gravel vs fake grass, it just looks so...fake. Our neighbors across the street have it and it which it looks realistic, it just never changes or moves...it's like planting a fake flower or fake tree. By the way I hate fake Christmas trees too.