World Water Day 2022: Groundwater

We've circled the sun one more time to another World Water Day. This year, the theme is Groundwater. 

I co-organize a monthly (Zoom) series for the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles County that grew out of a one-time water walking tour I led in the Beach Cities. We record and post all the Water and Infrastructure Group (WIG) lectures along with the slides. Occasionally, I add articles about what we learned or add further information on each month's subject. 

Please take some time to watch Groundwater 101: Introduction to Sustainable Groundwater Management in Southern California or look through the Groundwater 101 slide deck.

   

Mr. Matthew Hacker is a registered geologist in California and is currently a Senior Resource Specialist at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. He has more than 27 years of experience in water resources planning and local resource development in the areas of groundwater, stormwater, and water recycling. Currently, he is striving to create a more resilient water future for Southern California through innovative new projects such as Metropolitan’s groundbreaking Regional Recycled Water Program. 

His prepared talk is under an hour, half the video is Q and A. 

One fascinating thing I learned is that Metropolitan stores imported river water in the vast LA coastal aquifer. That water we pump out, treat, and deliver to our homes, may have originated in Northern California or Colorado. 

You can learn more about that by watching the Who Fills Your Taps? Video or reading the Who Fills Your Taps? Slide Deck. This is a marathon one that is better ingested in two bites. WIG co-organizer, Kathy Kunysz, is a scientist & planner who has had a long & varied career in water. She knows so much, it's an honor and an education to co-host this series with her. 

Upcycling FO and UFO

Rotating the dining table 90 degrees did wonders for the usability and ambience of my apartment. Now I look out the patio window at the flatirons when I eat instead of at a wall.

Moreover, I can easily reach my cutting supplies and place them on the table.  I can walk around three sides of the table when laying out and cutting fabric.  I can even take advantage of the more comfortable height of the kitchen peninsula for smaller projects.

My iron puts out a lot of heat and steam.  That's great for pressing, but not so great for the temperature of my living room.  But, I sew next to a patio door leading to a balcony.  How about putting the ironing board on the balcony so the excess heat goes outside?  I'm very proud of my thermodynamic thinking.

Rearrangement has done wonders for my sewing mojo.

First, a little backstory.  Our family shares just one laundry bag on our travels.  When Iris went away to camp, she and I fought over the laundry bag.  Clearly, I needed to make a second one for Colorado.

Before leaving Boulder for my last California visit, I refashioned one of Bad Dad's old oxford shirts into a laundry bag.  I supplemented the shirt body with blue cotton that I found at SAS Fabrics.  The blue fabric had suffered sun damage (fading) along some folded edges.  That's why it ended up being sold by the pound at an odd-jobber.

I thought it would be fine as a quilt back, especially for less than $1/yard.  However, it went perfectly with the old shirt so it became a laundry bag and two pillowcases (not pictured) instead.  There is still enough leftover to back a baby quilt or wall hanging.

I couldn't find any cord locks in my sewing notions cabinet (blue drawer thingy in the photo). I couldn't find any in my sewing room in LA either, but at least I found nylon cord for the drawstring. I recall seeing a jar of cord locks at the Boulder Army Store so I purchased two on my epic cycling errand run (separate post) yesterday.

Did I mention that one of the finest yarn stores in the US is across the street from my apartment complex? Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins ( > 8,000 sf of store and classroom space!) used to be one of my must stops on each Boulder visit, and now it's a cool and friendly neighborhood place to drop in to knit and chat when my apartment is too hot.  (Bonus, it's upstairs from the Boulder Map Gallery--a fantastic place to get books, maps and advice for your outdoor adventures.)

In addition to a huge selection of yarns from most major manufacturers and several small local hand-dyers, SSS sells mill overstock yarns, suitable for weaving and knitting, for ~$8-10 per one pound cone.  After you finish your project, you can sell back the leftover unused yarn on the cone for store credit.  I purchased two cones of this Aran gauge cotton, but it looks like one cone will be sufficient.  That means this cardigan will cost me all of $8.

You may recognize the sweater pattern that I knit previously here and here.  1.5 sleeves are done and I hope to debut a cardigan and matching top (made from another recycled shirt) soon.

Why the obsession with upcycling/recycling/reuse?

It occurred to me that I haven't explained recently why I go through the bother of sourcing and using so much recycled textiles even though I can afford to buy new stuff.  If you started reading this blog after the Wardrobe Refashion project ended, you may not have read my Wardrobe Refashion series in which I talk about the environmental impact and ethics of clothing and textiles.

When I had very little money, I used to buy remnants of fine fabrics or used clothing as sewing material rather than buy the poorer quality things normally available to someone on my budget.  When I had more money, I found myself confronting the consequences of consuming too much.  Most people are blissfully unaware, but I am a scientist and I really ought to know better.

Anyway, just as I am not a total vegetarian, I do not completely eschew buying new things.  However, I do try to source used or preconsumer waste materials first before shopping new.

Carolyn expressed surprise that the fabric on my planetary t-shirt survived for a third life.  Alas, it has developed so many holes, I stopped counting or wearing it outside of the house.  Reusing textiles is not the most efficient use of my time, but I think of it as experimental research!

How to harvest materials from a men's dress shirt

• There are many approaches but this is mine
• Cut off the buttons and save for other projects.  I hardly ever purchase new buttons now because I have such a large stash.
• Cut off the collar, which is usually frayed.  I'm saving collars to make a cute bag that I saw in a Japanese pattern book.  I have nearly enough.
• Cut off the sleeves.
• Cut the cuffs off the sleeves (if they are not too worn).  They make cute embellishments.
• For this bag, I cut the shirt body straight across at the armholes and bottom.  For other shirt refashions, I used most of the shirt body.
• Sleeves can yield bias strips for binding edges.
• All non-usable fabric scraps are placed in a basket for use instead of paper towels for messy cleanup jobs around the house.
• T-shirts can be doubled and turned into thick reusable rags.

Waste Heat

A (physicist) friend in Boulder said that incandescent light bulbs and "waste heat" get a bad rap. So what if incandescent light bulbs put off heat if you use them in the winter or at night, when your house could use the "waste" heat anyway?  Heat is not wasted if you need it.

I'm reminded of this because we are experiencing the coldest temperatures of the year (so far) without home heating.  We are awaiting a new motor and other replacement parts for our 15 year old furnace.

Our thermostat keeps track of how many total hours the furnace runs and we've been logging about 50 yours per winter.  This doesn't sound like much, but the total includes only times when the furnace cycles on.  The motor also runs the whole-house fan, which is hooked up to an electrostatic air filter.  We run that any time of the year when dust or pollution is a problem.  The motor ran for more than 50 hrs*15 years and we should have checked the system *before* we needed it.  Live and learn.

We replaced most of the incandescent light bulbs in our house with fluorescent ones.  Right now, I am really grateful for the few remaining incandescent bulbs in our home because of the welcome heat they put out.  Our indoor temps have been hovering between 55-63 F this past week while outdoor temps have dipped as low as the upper 30s.  At home, we dress like we do at night at camp.

Related:

• Furnace Wars 2012 
• Stick That Up Your Light Socket 

Aside:

I just love this vintage lamp my MIL gave me. I need to replace the rotted leather lacing, but it's in great shape otherwise.  I've received some fantastic mid-century pieces from Sweden and Japan from both my mom and my MIL in their recent decluttering campaigns.

Furnace Wars 2012

Do you play furnace wars? That is, do you delight in smugly NOT using your furnace when weaklings others succumb to cold weather and turn on their heaters?  We fired up our furnace for the first time on Dec 9, when our house temperature dipped below 67F (about 19.6C) during the daytime.

Behold, our secret weapon in the furnace wars.  (This photo will look familiar to those who read Blog Action Day: Walking My Watershed.  I hope you read it; it's one of the most popular posts on this blog.)

Our bathroom sink and one of the twin sinks in our kitchen hold about 10 liters of water. Suppose we fill it with the tap water at 50C (122F).  That's 10 kg of water with a heat capacity of 4.2 kJ/(kg-K).  One liter of water will release 4.2 kiloJoules of energy for every degree C it cools.  Suppose the water cools to a comfortable 25C (77F), then it releases
10 liters * 25 degrees * 4.2 kJ/(kg-K) = 1050 kJoules.

Our kitchen is roughly 12x12 feet with 8 feet ceilings.  Convert that into meters and we get an air volume of 32621 liters.  The molecular mass of air is about 0.029 kg/mole. (Air is a mixture of gases so this is the weighted mass of it's constituent gases.)

One mole of gas at standard temperature and pressure (STP), a comfortable temperature for humans at sea level pressure,  fills up 22.14 liters.  So the air in our kitchen weighs
32621 liters * 0.029 kg/mole / 22.14 liters/mole = 42.7 kg.

The heat capacity of air at STP is 1.00 kj/(kg-K), so the 1050 kiloJoules of energy released by the cooling sink water can heat the air in the kitchen
1050 kJ / (42.7 kg * 1.00 kJ/(kg-K)) = 24.6 C

If the air in the kitchen started at 20 C, and is warmed another 24.6 C, then it would be a toasty 112 F.

The kitchen does not get that warm because some of that heat is transferred to the porcelain sink, heat capacity 1.07 kJ/(kg-K), furnishings, etc.  But, you get the general idea.  You used an awful lot of energy to heat that hot water, so you might as well get as much of that energy back before you send it down the drain.

Fancy new houses might have an expensive heat exchanger system*, using waste heat from the water leaving the house to heat up the water coming into the house.  But, we have an older and simpler house;  we use the same cheap and effective technology our grandparents used, our brains.

Now calculate the equilibrium temperature when 10 kg of water at 50 C meets 42 kg of air at 20 C.  Assume that it is a closed system (no heat loss to the sink or furnishings).  Leave your answer in the comments.

* Actually, heat exchanger systems are not that high tech or new.  They just run tubes of hot and cold water around each other.  I first read about that in the 1970s.  But, they did not gain traction in mass-market housing.  They were recently resurrected in expensive and huge LEED homes.

Addendum:
Alison makes a good point in her comment.  You do get much bang for your energy buck if you let the bathwater cool before you send it down the drain.  When we used to take baths, that's what we did in the winter time.  We take showers now--with a very low flow shower head.  If you don't mind rinsing the soap off your feet in the faucet before you exit the tub, you can recoup a great deal of heat from your shower water, too.