For the past few days we've had normal--that is, as I remember from my first few years here--weather: sun during the day building to an afternoon storm. I recently read that for the past few years those storms didn't happen in part because the weather had so much less moisture in the mountains to get started with. I think late April might be earlier to start, but I do love the rain. Yesterday there was a brief thunderstorm just as I wanted to bike home, with hail. My Macintosh consultant-cum-bad weather rescuer rescued me, and a fine thing because the streets were flooded. It didn't rain that much, but the storm sewers (stupid things, drawing off all that water just because not enough ground is permeable) are clogged, seemingly always.
Denver Water has a site now where you can find your historic usage--inexplicably arranged in reverse chronology--and compare yourself to the average user. The average household uses 9,000 gallons in the winter and 23,000 in the summer; we use 7K and 13K. The average household is 2.7 people. So we beat the average comfortably, which is fine, but I know we could conserve more.
We don't catch the pre-hot shower water in a bucket. I don't know about the state of our pipes, if they're sufficiently insulated to shorten that pre-hot flow. I run only full clothes- and dishwasher loads, and I probably could conserve more water if I didn't use a dishwasher at all, but I would sooner replumb my house to redirect all graywater to the toilet and the hoses than give up a dishwasher. We replaced the dishwasher our first summer with one that allegedly uses less than average water and electricity. The clotheswasher came with the house and I wonder if replacing it with a horizontal axis one would be worthwhile.
The appliance we are thinking of replacing is the swamp cooler. Right now it makes RDC's study freezing and grimy and the rest of the house bearable. If we got a new one and mounted it on the roof, using the existing ductwork from the solar panels (is that possible? we'll find out), said new one would be quieter, use less water, and cool most of the floor more effectively. But that's the thing: his study needs to be cool enough for him to work in and the bedroom cool enough to sleep in; the solar heat affects the kitchen, dining room, and living room. The floor fan--ten years old and still humming, and clean because a filthy fan is icky--would probably draw cooler air into the bedrooms better than it does the solar-warmed air.
This summer we won't save anything on water and might use more: establishing a xeriscape uses less water only assuming you used to water the grass it replaced. I did not. According to Denver Water, we used more in the summer of 2000, when at least RDC made some attempt to preserve the grass, than we did in either summer since, when there was a vegetable garden and no bothering with grass.
Next year we deal with the backyard, ripping out the pathetic, weed-ridden remnants of bluegrass and planting buffalo and gama grass plus, replacing one raised bed and building another. This year, whatever doesn't need nurturing and isn't bindweed can frolic at will.