Typical water usage?

[Shawn Clark]

Since some here are in regions with serious water depletion issues, I thought it might be interesting to hear what typical water usages are for forum members.

I'll start with my own (two adults, two kids, modest yard):
In-home use ran about 5.8 kgal/month over the past year.
Lawn use ran about 10.1 kgal/year. The annual total was a little less than 80 kgal/year. Rates here are about $3+/kgal.

Primary water consumption for us is four showers/day, 1 dishwasher load/day, 1 load of laundry/day, handwash of misc. dishes 2-3 times/week, cooking use 1-2 times day, some lavatory sink use, uknown number of toilet flushes.

I've taken a few steps that have reduced our consumption, some of which are already reflected in the average above: 1 low flow showerhead, 1 front loading washer, insulating hot water lines (so that taps/showers come to temp faster.) I'm a believer in minimal lawn watering but took over from someone who seriously overwatered the lawn, so I had to water it more than I liked last year to keep it alive.

This year's water conservation plans include: another low flow showerhead for the master bath and one high efficiency Toto toilet (1.28 gpf). If the high efficiency toilet works well, then I'll probably repeat in the other two baths. As I understand it the ecoDrake I'm looking at can be converted back to 1.6 gpf by changing flappers so there is little risk in the experiment. The current 1994 vintage toilets are marginal flushers, retiring the plunger is the primary motivator for replacing them. Hopefully the above changes will knock water use down by another 1 kgal/month and get us down to around 4 kgal/month excluding lawn irrigation.

[tripp]

I'll have to check ours.

We have 2 shower takers and 2 bath takers (who take a bath together, the dirty, wee buggers). 1.6 GPM shower head. We have vintage toilets (1.6 GPF) but I put a brick in each toilet tank to try to reduce the amount of water in the tank (is this a waste of time?).

We have a typical, top loading washer, but it has an adjustable load setting which we use with every load. Probably not as good as a front loader, I'm sure, but we probably save quite bit of water. We also have it set on one rinse cycle instead of two.

We don't leave faucets running while doing dishes, hand washer, tooth brushing, shaving, etc. I'm not sure what our water usage is for the lawn (this year it's quite low because it's been quite wet), but I have the zones adjusted for what makes sense for that area and I never let the system run if it has rained recently. Our backyard if filled with trees so the grass doesn't need a lot to do fine (we have, mostly, KY Bluegrass, idiotic I know). I'm thinking about Xeriscaping the front yard to: a.) dramatically reduce the amount of water we use. b.) save on time maintaining the lawn. c.) reduce the amount of weed killer I have to apply to keep crab grass and various broadleaf weeds in check.

We'll eventually replace the washer with a front loader. I'm going to buy a new dish washer very soon and energy star will be criterion for sure. Cost most also play a key role right now, sadly.

I'm interested to hear what others have to say on the subject, esp the desert rats (not the WW2 blokes).

[jayman]

My house has an Energy Star dishwasher, washing machine, etc. Minimum 2 adults, sometimes 3 adults depending on how long my Aunt visits

Dishwasher every day, twice a day on the weekends. Washing machine load every day. Numerous showers, etc.

My water meter reads in cubic metres. Fall, winter, spring, I average 18-22 m3 a month, or about 4,700-5,800 US gals a month. In summer, depending on how much I have to water the lawn, 35-60 m3 a month, or 9,200-15,800 US gals a month

Compared to my neighbors, my water consumption is 15-25% lower. Water here is pretty cheap, I only get billed every 3 months. The winter bill is usually around $55 for 3 months, the summer bill around $200 for 3 months

[burritos]

Live in Socal. Don't know how much we use, but with 3 adults, one toddler we pay about $15-25/month, summer months $35-50/month.

[F8L]

2 Adults in an 1150sq.ft. apartment = 3670ga/mo ($55.11/mo).
Once my roomate moves out I expect the water use to be cut nearly in half because she does soooo much laundry. lol Iguess i'm partially to blame for being sick and haviong to use the bathroom so much.

[JSH]

We averaged 2066 gallons per month from January to March. The garden was planted in April along with some ground cover in the front yard. That jumped our usage to 3050 for April and ??? for May. (City had to come out and replace the meter)

Our main usages are 1 shower per day and the toilets. (We do go by the "If it's yellow..... rule so that cuts down on flushes.)

Other than that we do about 3-4 loads of dishes per week and 3-4 loads of laundry. The garden has been watered about every 3 days and is well mulched to retain water. We put down about an inch of water per watering.

[Frayadjacent]

I'm single and live alone. I do have a yard, but it's not big, and I don't water it very often. I do shower every day, but laundry and dishes are only done maybe once a week.

I think I'm averaging around 1400 gallon per month. I'm pretty sure less than 2k. If I do water the lawn a lot, that can easily go up to 4 or 5k.

[fuzzy1]

In my water district, residential customers average 84 CCF per year. (CCF = 100 cubic feet = 748 gallons)

With the old water hog toilets, dishwasher and clothes washer, my household (2 adults) averaged 66 CCF/year (4100 gal/month). With my upgrade three years ago to 1.6 gpf toilets, EnergyStar dishwasher and frontloader clothes washer, two rain barrels for hand watering, and consistent use of drip irrigation instead of sprinklers in the gardens, usage has fallen to 31 - 37 CCF/year (1930 to 2300 gal/month), depending on how much we travel.

The lawn is not watered. Any dryland farmer knows that grass is supposed to go dormant in the summer.

If any household member has that middle-aged problem that the TV pharma ads call 'bladder urges', then it is imperative that any old water hog 3.5 or 5 gpf toilets be replaced. The common cheap replacement flappers and mechanisms push these hogs to even higher levels of wastage than the original parts.

[Shawn Clark]

Originally Posted by tripp

We have 2 shower takers and 2 bath takers (who take a bath together, the dirty, wee buggers).

We did the same up until they got old enough that it was causing problems. Counter to conventional wisdom they used less water that way compared to the next year or two when they started showering. At first when they were showering I couldn't get them out without a struggle. Kids do like the little hourglass timers you stick to the side of the shower though, that helped.

1.6 GPM shower head. We have vintage toilets (1.6 GPF) but I put a brick in each toilet tank to try to reduce the amount of water in the tank (is this a waste of time?)

If the toilet still flushes adequately then it's fine. If I did the volume calc right the standard U.S. brick dimension works out to 0.3 gallons. So you've effectively converted yours to an HET (High Efficiency Toilet) at the expense of a brick. The advantage of such a conversion is that the starting level remains at the same height so the initial impulse is unchanged.

Most toilets are still 1.6 gpf. The 1.28 (or less) types are the High Efficiency Toilets or Watersense. Some are the dual flush type: 0.8 gallons for a whizz, 1.6 for a deuce (or anything with paper.)

Our old 1.6 gpf standard Gerbers have a couple of problems: they really aren't well designed or fabricated for the flush volume and they have small water spots. The water spot is the area of water in the bowl. If the toilet waterspot is too small like ours (about 4x5 inch) then the toilet is prone to needing a second flush to clean off skid marks...and often a brushing too. Plus when in use anything missing the waterspot tends to make the room smell like an Asian style squat/slit toilet (which are about one step improved from an outhouse)...making courtesy flushes advisable. The Totos have about three times the water spot area of our old Gerbers.

Of course, I can't justify this sort of change (1.6 to 1.28) based on water saving economics, but it's not hard to conclude that it is worth doing to eliminate unpleasant clogs & extra clean up, and to reduce odor. I would gladly hand someone $20--probably more, at least $50 when company is around--to make an individual clog disappear as if nothing happened (without the mess and cleanup.) Doesn't take many events to pay for a new toilet on that basis.

[PriuStorm]

In winter when we don't irrigate, we use about 100 gallons per day (4CCF/month) for the two of us. I'd like to get that down to what JSH has above. What we've done so far:
- converted toilet in Master BR (most used toilet) to Australian Caroma toilet (dual-flush 1.6 or 0.8 GPF). Hall bath toilet is next when we remodel
- We also follow 'if it's yellow...'
- We capture warm-up water from showers and use in the garden
- We also capture hand-washing and other grey water in sinks and use in the garden
- Low-flow shower heads. Also do 'military' style (rinse-turn water off- soap up- rinse)
- Although I do collect some rainwater in garbage cans in winter, it is quickly used. I would like to set up a bigger system for storing.

The thing we need to work on is our garden. We have a relatively big lawn in the back. I think I'm going to take out half of it next year and sow red clover in the other half to reduce it's water requirement. Right now I water it just to keep it from 'burning' (esp. the roots), but it is slowly turning golden. I also don't skimp on the veggie garden, but do amend the soil well and use mulch. Summer usage is much higher, probably 15-18 CCF/month, and I want to knock that down.

Thanks for posting this thread. I've been wondering about relative usages.

BTW, our property is a typical suburban property, about 1/4 to 1/3 acre in size.