Welcome to the Teeny Greeny
My name is Rob Greenfield
and this is my off the grid
in the city tiny house life.
Today I'm going to talk about water.
Off the grid means not
connected to public utilities
so that means I don't have
running water or electricity here.
I harvest my water from the sky
but since my room is not big enough
I have to use my neighbor's roof.
Let me show you.
The water falls from the sky,
on to my neighbor's roof, into the gutter,
into the downspouts,
and then into the rainwater barrels.
A roof can harvest far more rainwater
than you would probably imagine,
even in drought-stricken Southern California.
If we all harvested rain
and used our water consciously
that would be enough water
to meet our daily needs.
Since I'm 5 or 10 feet
above my neighbors house
I have to manually pump it up
from those barrels into
these ones right here.
And this is just a simple
rainwater barrel system.
These are old food grade barrels
and they're connected via the PVC below.
When I need to fill up
to use water for the yard
I just turn on the spigot,
fill up this jug, and then use it outside.
The average American uses
80 to 100 gallons of water per day.
I use no more than 5
which is what is what you see right here.
I filter the water
using this Berkey filter
which makes it 100% safe to drink and
substantially more pure than
municipal water.
This takes care of bacteria, protozoa
viruses. and chemicals
so you can feel safe drinking this water.
Nothing better than rainwater.
I have a compost toilet here
which a typical toilet uses
about 1.6 gallons of water per flush.
Here I save thousands of gallons of water
per year with the compost toilet.
By not having a seemingly infinite
amount of water running from the tap
I've learned to really conserve
every last drop and appreciate the water.
The water that's used in the sink goes
down the drain into this 5 gallon bucket
which I then take to the garden
to grow my food.
So these are called wicking bed gardens
which were inspired to me by
the Food is Free Project
and these are extremely drought tolerant
and water-efficient.
I don'€™t have a shower here
and even when I lived in an apartment
I didn't use the shower
because it's been over 2 years since
I've taken my last traditional shower.
Instead, I just go for a swim in the ocean.
But on days when I don't feel like going
for a swim in the ocean
but want to freshen up
I just boil a half gallon
of water in the tea kettle
and then scrub down with a hot towel.
So I think it'€™s safe to say
that not a single gallon of water
goes to waste here at the Teeny Greeny.
But when I'm out and about
of course I have to use water
from the toilets and the tap
and I do my best to make sure
that I use it wisely.
And that's really the lesson here,
Just to use our resources wisely
and only used what we need.
For Inspiration to live
Happy, healthy and free
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