More and more, people are connected to their online lives all day. With smartphones we can carry computers in our pockets, it’s easy enough to listen to music while checking email on the bus. But how aware are we of the water we use everyday? Can smartphones actually keep us more connected to our water usage? They can.
5 iPhone apps that will help you save water:
1. How Blue Are You? PRICE: Free
This app from American Standard was released in April and is part of their larger campaign to raise awareness of water usage. It helps you calculate your water usage, the cost, and compares it to national averages. It also recommends more efficient products and offers quizzes, prizes and rebates.
2. Waterprint PRICE: Free
Waterprint helps you calculate an estimate of your personal “water footprint.” The idea is to break down your water use by food, beverages, products, and overall household, then calculate your usage. The app will also compare the water footprints of different items.
3. Water Buddy 1.0 PRICE: $1.99
This app was released in late March and is focused on making it easy for you to become aware of how much water you use. You set a usage target for a period of time and then you keep track of your water meter readings. Don’t have a clue what kind of target you would set? They’ll help. And that’s a pretty good reason to try it out in the first place. Save water and money.
4. myUse PRICE: $1.99
This app, just released in April, tracks water, electricity and gas usage. It estimates your upcoming usage, so that you can walk by the meters and make simple adjustments, rather than taking more time to transcribe the data and transfer it to a spreadsheet. It also creates charts and graphs for a variety of measurements, allowing you to compare your usage to averages and keep track over time. Readings, charts and graphs are all exportable to email.
5. Toobz PRICE: Free
This one is for fun, but carries a lesson. The challenge is to arrange a system of “toobz,” or pipes, to allow the water to flow safely through the network you’ve built. As the levels advance, you have less time to build. Spill any water and you lose. Hmmm… increasing pressure to build efficient piping networks to fulfill water needs? This may be a game, but it sounds awfully familiar.
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