Save Water And Power With These Apps
In this selection of the green apps, I have collected a variety of apps that can help you preserve water, by providing you with information such as how much water you are consuming and tips for reducing water use. Here is a list of X useful water conversation apps for your everyday use.
1. Dropcountr
Intelligent Engagement and Analytics for Water Utilities
This App is designed to connect to your smart meter at home and compares how you are using water relative to your neighbors. It can also detect leaks and prevent further disasters.
What people are saying:
Dropcountr did a great job keeping me apprised on water usage when I lived in Austin and helped point out potential problems before they became big ones. Only reduced bc the app asks for a lot of privileges (ability to write over other apps, for example) that seem unnecessary for the task.
Great app! Proved invaluable in tracking down a leak/usage issue. I find the hourly data highly accurate and app makes it simple to see usage patterns! The Dropcountr support team is fantastic – they quickly, efficiently assisted me with some customized usage data retrieval I needed.
Have had water service for less than 6 months. App opens in the 6 month view and bc I don’t have data that far back, the app crashes. I can sometimes quickly select a different time period before it crashes to view my data. Developers, set the default view to open on day rather than 6mo to solve the problem!
Rating: 3 out of 5
2. Tap
Find Water Anywhere!
While the concept for Tap is excellent, unfortunately, it needs a bit of refinement, like many of these green apps, I find they are all not perfect.
This is what Tap has to say:
Tap is an app that allows you to find nearby Refill Stations, so you never have to buy bottled water again. You open the app, and within seconds, you’ll find the closest place to refill your water bottle.
Over 1 million plastic bottles are purchased every minute and nearly 80% of these end up in our landfills and oceans. At this rate, the amount of single-use plastic ending up in our oceans will outweigh fish by 2050, unless we make a change.
What people are saying:
This is a great concept, but you should be able to add a location. You shouldn’t have to rely on the businesses to participate. For example, my local library has a great water fountain and is welcoming of everyone. I should be able to add them.
not what I expected. I was looking for free water options, such as drinking fountains in public buildings or parks, water stations like in libraries and community centers etc. Instead, it lists restaurants and fast food shops where you usually have to buy something to gain access to water.
Rating: 3 out of 5
3. Rainharvest
Calculate how much rainwater you could be collecting.
Have you ever wondered how much rain falls on your roof during a typical rainstorm? Use this simple rain harvesting calculator to find out.
You will be amazed at how much water can be collected from your roof (or any other surface) during even the shortest of rainstorms.
Why not collect and store this wonderful natural resource and put it to good use later to water your organic garden? A simple calculator interface allows for the input of:
Catchment surface area in square feet or square meters Rainfall in inches or millimeters Surface efficiency as a percentage Number of collection points. The final result is then presented in total gallons or liters of collected runoff.
Gallons or liters per collection point is also calculated when more than one collection point is entered into the calculator. Happy Rain Harvesting!
What people are saying:
- It does exactly what it says it does. Simple & effective.
- Easy to use for quick information on potential system size and design.
- This is a great app for giving you an idea for collecting rainwater!
- Rating: 4 out of 5only available for iPhone
The reason I keep coming back to Best Before is the speed of entry. I’ve tried lots of different apps with better interfaces, more features, etc., they were all too cumbersome to use, and I was too lazy to keep using them.
Best Before has custom categories, locations, and units, the ability to “open” (partially consume) products, and a super quick template-based entry mechanism that makes it quick and easy to add products after shopping and remove as I use or consume them.
I’ve just started to use this app, and it’s going well so far. My main issues are around how you select the best before date. It would be much easier to hit the calendar icon and then a month, so you get a pop-up calendar to select your date from. When you’re recording consumption, it would be much easier to say you’d used half, 2/3rds, etc., or be able to overwrite the quantity instead of scrolling. It would also be instrumental in recording multiples of items.
Great app for keeping up with what’s in your pantry, fridge, freezer, and more. It lets you know when food is about to expire and when open food is going bad. You have to type in each item manually. For this, I gave it a 4 star. It really needs a scan feature to make adding items much faster.
Rating: 4 out of 5
6. Sharewaste
Find a compost in your area and share your food scraps.
The app is designed to connect you with the people in your neighborhood that wish to recycle their kitchen scraps. Now you can divert waste from landfills while getting to know the people around you!
- be a host
- sign up if you have chickens or a worm farm and want more food scraps
- geotag so the donor can easily find you and connect with you
- be a donor
What they are saying:
The easiest way to recycle organic waste. ShareWaste connects people from apartment units with their neighbours who are composting, have a worm farm or chooks. Hosts get more compost for their garden, donors save their scraps from landfill.
Join over 1700 community members who are already composting with ShareWaste. Give your scraps a second chance!
What people are saying:
When I start typing a message to a host, the keyboard action comes over the words I’m typing, so I literally can’t see what I’m typing or if it’s spelled right. So I can’t really use it, but I really want to use this system. Please check it and maybe update it.
Rating: 3 out of 5
