Pacific Institute Releases the WECalc, Your Home Water-Energy-Climate Calculator

The Pacific Institute has just released an awesome new public outreach and education tool called the WECalc – Your Home Water, Energy and Climate Calculator. The user-friendly WECalc allows anybody to quantify their personal or household’s water use and its associated energy and greenhouse gas emissions, then provides specific tips based on your water use habits.

In addition to being one of the most comprehenseive water use calculators out there, the WECalc estimates the energy and greenhouse gas emissions costs that result from an individual's or household's water use, making it an ideal tool for educating the public about the connections between their carbon footprint and their water use. The tool is at once simple enough for school children to use yet robust enough to provide homeowners with all the information they could possibly want on how to begin saving energy by saving water.

The Pacific Institute has been developing the WECalc over the last couple years, and along with just about everything else the folks at Pacific Institute put out, the tool has been rigorously researched and fine-tuned to provide a user-friendly yet scientifically sound estimate of your water-related energy use.

When you use the WECalc you can tell that its creators - Lucy Allen, Heather Cooley, Matthew Heberger, and Peter H. Gleick, all from the Pacific Institute – spent a lot of time sweating even the smallest details. For the layperson, just about every question in the calculator has a link that leads the user to helpful tips, definitions or explanations of why the question is important, while for those wonks out there, the tool’s assumptions and sources are all meticulously documented so you can see just how scientifically sound the model is.

My favorite part of the tool is the comprehensive list of suggestions provided at the end – suggestions that are based specifically on the information you enter into the tool. And speaking of detail, for each recommendation, the tool will tell you the approximate cost of implementing the strategy (i.e. low-flow showerheads $15 - $55), expected daily water savings, annual greenhouse gas emissions reductions, annual savings on water and energy bills, and the payback period for recouping your initial investment.

Check out the WECalc today at: http://www.wecalc.org/.

You can also visit the WECalc on Facebook.

If you are interested in more calculators and tools related to saving energy by saving water, check out River Network’s Water-Energy Toolkit: Understanding the Carbon Footprint of Your Water Use. This guidebook features descriptions and links to download 11 different tools or calculators – including Pacific Institute’s WECalc - that are designed to help river advocates, water managers and the general public understand the carbon footprint of their water use and the numerous benefits of water efficiency and the “soft path” approach.

For more information on the excellent WECalc, read Pacific Institute’s press release below:

July 28, 2010, Oakland, Calif.: Water and energy are closely connected – and as a result, saving water saves energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. To better understand these potential savings, the Pacific Institute developed WECalc – Your Home Water, Energy, Climate Calculator, at www.wecalc.org. This free online tool helps you estimate your home water use and water-related energy use – and the associated greenhouse gas emissions. It also shows you how much you can save and gives suggestions on ways to achieve these savings.

“People are concerned about conserving water. They also want to reduce their carbon footprint,” said Heather Cooley, co-director of the Pacific Institute’s Water Program and one of the creators of WECalc. “Yet, most people don’t realize that saving water is an easy and often times low-cost way to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. WECalc helps you estimate just how much water, energy, and money you can save.”

Delivering water to our homes requires energy – energy to convey it to each community, treat it so that it is safe to drink, and deliver it to individual homes. We then use energy to heat water for showers, clothes washers, dishwashers, and faucets. Water that is used indoors must be conveyed after use to a wastewater treatment plant, where energy is used to treat water before it is released in the environment.

As a result, water-use decisions have significant energy impacts. An easy-to-use online calculator, WECalc evaluates the energy and greenhouse gas burden associated with water use – and identifies strategies to reduce that burden. It asks a series of questions about your home water use habits, and based on your replies, or on defaults, WECalc estimates your water use and provides specific recommendations for reducing it.

“We designed WECalc so individuals can see that they have real options for saving water and energy,” said Matthew Heberger of the Pacific Institute, one of the creators of WECalc. “It empowers people to make smart and cost-effective decisions.”

WECalc compares your home use with the national average and also compares it to an efficient home. Solutions suggested can be as simple as installing a faucet aerator that costs only $1-4 but saves $47 per year and reduces carbon emissions by 310 lb per year; or shortening your shower by one minute, a free way to save over 100 lb of carbon per year; or conducting a water audit to find and repair leaks, which could save $50 - $100 in water per year and 38 lb of carbon (all varying somewhat depending on where you live).

“This online tool helps people see how their home water use habits affect energy use,” said Lucy Allen of the Pacific Institute, one of the creators of WECalc. “Simple things like changing showerheads or installing a faucet aerator can have a big impact on our own water and energy use.”

The good news is we can reduce our water and energy use, and the Pacific Institute’s WECalc, at www.wecalc.org, can help people figure it out for their own homes. WECalc was made possible through the support of the Argosy Foundation.

The Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., is a nonpartisan research institute that works to create a healthier planet and sustainable communities. Through interdisciplinary research and partnering with stakeholders, the Institute produces solutions that advance environmental protection, economic development, and social equity – in California, nationally, and internationally. www.pacinst.org.