Please post your ideas for saving water!

[TomC]

My way of making water last longer is to use bigger tanks.  On my bus I have 130gal fresh, 85gal gray, 45gal black.  The two of us can do about a week on this water.  On my truck I've gone to 198gal fresh, 115gal gray, 60gal black-because I can.  Good Luck, TomC

[thomasinnv]

we have learned to be very frugal with our water. I have a 120 gal fresh and we have been parked in the AZ desert for three weeks as of today. Just ran the tank empty this morning. Good thing we planned on leaving today anyway, lol.

[boogiethecat]

Something no-one's mentioned is to plumb your hot water system as a loop, with a manual valve at the end of it, the outlet of the valve going back to your cold water tank's fill hose.
When you need hot water for anything , you open the valve; your water pump starts pumping hot water through the system and back into the storage tank, so you've now pre-heated all the lines and not wasted even a drop of water.  Finally, close the valve (I just use a brass valve and hold it until it gets hot, to tell when it's time to turn it off) and use your "instant" hot water...

[buswarrior]

And boogiethecat has also explained how you may defend against freezing of both your fresh and black/gray tanks, if all else fails.

Other busnuts already use this strategy.

Using the bypass, you may raise the temp of your fresh water tank by cycling some hot water into it with the bypass, and running some hot water down the drain for the Black/Gray.
And engage the hot water heater and cycle it again, repeat over and over as necessary.

Even a short run of piping can consume a gallon of water to bring the hot water up to the taps.

When you only have so many gallons, you'd rather cycle that gallon back to the tank to be used properly?

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Iceni John]

Boogie, I like your idea of using a brass valve to tell you when the water's hot.   Shear genius!   (But what else would I expect from a Crown owner . . .)   I've already run a 1/2" line back to one of my fresh tanks, specifically for this purpose.

Thanks, John

[Joe Camper]

Doctor when I was out in the bus alone I could go 2 weeks on the 125 gal fresh water tank.

I took quick daily showers and just generally conserved.

I drink a lot of coffee, that and the u-line ice maker was 20 gal of it easy. Still had 1/4 to 1/5th tank after a trip.

Go big in this aspect and enjoy it more that way.

I did a install on a second fresh water tank built into the base of the bed it was an additional 100 gal to a 125 that was already in the bus. Had it hooked into the main tank with a simple tube and ball valve and it would simply gravity transfer.

IMO this is the way to go. Water conservation is always a good thing but you should also put the most possible capacity into the conversion as you can. You will not regrett it.

That's my 2 cents