And a special congratulations to Farah E., who was the winner of our $50 bonus drawing! And last but not least, the Oil is Dumb Team wanted to give out some additional $10 awards to our favorite photos:
Squeaky Cleanest Faucet: Mary H., Littleton, CO
Most Creative Sign: Geoff O., Austin, TX
Most Artistic Sign: Nicole S., Austin, TX
Together, here is what we saved:
Oil
Electricity: ................. 514 kWh
Natural Gas
Water: ........................ 2,016 gallons
Paper
Carbon: ...................... 0.35 metric tons
Landfill Waste
Sulfur Dioxide: .......... 1.6 lbs
Nitrous Oxides: ......... 0.59 lbs
Mercury: .................... 0.015 lbs
Cost: .......................... $360
Here are the assumptions we are making for these numbers. First, that by using the 5-second rule, and therefore having to turn off the faucet when doing things like brushing your teeth and shaving, we save roughly 4 gallons of water per day. Second, we assume that if people say they're doing it (and if they went to the trouble of making a sign), then they are doing it, at least for two weeks. We also assume that the electricity it takes to pump, process, and treat water at a waste treatment plant is 0.13 kWh per gallon (this makes 262 kWh total). Plus, we assume 13% of total home energy use goes to water heating, 15% of our water use is through the faucet, and 73% of that water is hot. That means we saved an additional 7 kWh per person, or another 252 kWh. So that brings us to a total (conservative) estimate of a savings of 514 kWh.
The big surprise here is how much electricity was saved. We weren't even trying to save electricity. We were just turning off the faucet. But since it takes energy to treat and pump that water, plus the fact that it takes energy to heat the water, we ended up saving a whopping 514 kWh. That is about half of what a household uses in a month.
Here are some photos from the contest (the full photo post is on Facebook, and it'll be on our new website soon):
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