Until the drought, California homeowners paid little attention to faucets, toilets, shower heads and sprinkler systems--as long as they worked.

But when reservoirs started drying up and water supplies to the county were cut, homeowners began scrutinizing these mundane dispensers. We found that it took five to seven gallons to flush the toilet, even in newer homes, despite the existence for years of technology and appliances that could do the job with only 1.6 gallons. We learned similar facts about showers and watering the lawn.

We've known for decades that our population had outgrown our meager local supply of water. Yet we kept building and equipping our houses with little regard to water use.

The drought will change that. Water rates will be restructured with financial incentives to conserve. Even without the drought, San Diego County growth has made conservation a necessity instead of just a civic responsibility.

That's because conservation is cheaper than finding new sources of water, as the price tags on reclamation and desalination systems show.

The same concept applies to energy; conservation is less expensive than building new power plants. We live in an energy desert; we import most of our power. That dependence on outside energy is likely to increase, given San Diego's anticipated growth and the difficulty of siting power plants.

So conservation will become all the more important, to keep the costs of energy affordable. The California Energy Commission estimates that 75% of the demand for energy from new residents over the next 10 years should be able to come from conservation.

Now is the time to start changing how we build our homes and to retrofit existing houses to make them more energy efficient.

The California Energy Commission is developing residential energy guidelines for California cities to consider as they update the housing sections of their general plans every five years.

The updates present an opportunity to incorporate innovative and affordable conservation incentives into the plans. This can cut utility costs for individual homeowners and renters while minimizing the demands for new power sources and making housing a little more affordable. It's also a way to draw upon Gov. Pete Wilson's call for preventive governmental assistance.

How can we enlist preventive approaches for utility costs?

The California Energy Commission's "Energy Efficiency Report" puts out specific recommendations every two years.