How much water do you use?

[dlminehart]

Our water use for a family of four varies from 100 gallons/day in the winter to 800 gallons/day in the summer. We have sprinklers on our lawn a few times per week in the summer, which appear to amount to about 57 ccf per month, at $2.16 per cu. ft. Roughly 4 dollars per day to have that grass during the summer. I think I'll look into some other ground cover . . .

[Sam Conder]

I added the bottom two options.

[Knottscott]

There are 8 people in our house and we use alot of water. The dishwasher runs daily, the washer runs several times daily, sink use, toilets, etc....lots of water!

[jhart]

2 of us use about 6000 gal. per month for regular use. goes up substantially in the summer when water the lawn.

My apartments average about the same per 2 people in an apartment year round.

[Crash2510]

I only know because all of the well problems we have had. you use about 250-350 gallons per person per week. We have 2000 gallons brought in for our cistern tank every two weeks

seems really low compared to all of you, but we learned how to conserve water

no I don't stink

[CManinLa]

Bill does not indicate if we are billed by cubic ft. or gallons. The last couple months we have been in the 4000-5000 range. Not much lawn watering done & 2 kids away at college. Looking at old bills in the spring, we have been in the 12K range when all the kids were home & we did regular lawn watering.

[twistsol]

I have no idea since we're on a well. Since we moved here, we've put in front loading high efficiency washer, replaced the dishwasher with an energy star model and have remodeled 2 of four bathrooms with low flow toilets. Offsetting that are three teenage girls that can't seem to get in and out of the shower in less than half an hour each.

[jlm]

My bill just refers to "units", no actual idea if it's gallons or cubic feet or liters or hectare-inches... I use about 3 of these mystery units every two months, so I think it's a thousand gallons. 1500 gallons per month sounds about right to me, since I live alone, and don't need to water the outdoor plants or grass much.

My usage must be pretty far below average - the water company has replaced the meter twice, thinking it's broken. Having formerly lived in Texas, I'm pretty conscious about my water consumption, and don't waste much. Short showers, low flow fixtures, don't care if my grass turns a little brown in August, you get the picture...

[maxparot]

I have a nice green lawn all year long with automatic sprinkler system, have a inground pool that is full all year, a hot tub that we use in the winter and live in a desert. During the summer I can go over 10,000 gallons easy.

[guycox]

229 lbs * .6 / 8.33 == 16.49 gallons...


60% of the average male's body is water..
8.33 weight of a gallon of water....

The rest of the water is a pass through -- I'm on septic and a well.

[radhak]

Finally found out that we used 6 units last month, and by diligently searching their website, know now that's 6000 gallons = $10.09 (1.62 per gallon first 5000 gallons, $1.99 / g for next 5000). Looks high for our usage (4 of us): only water the lawn once a week, and pretty hurried showers everyday .

I forgot that my bill if for 2 months. it definatly says 43 ccf, they charge $2.03249 per ccf and the billed amount matches.

my wife pays the bills, I've never paid attention to my usage before.

16000 gallons a month is pretty high. maybe you need to check for leaks. You could save around 60-75% of your bill roughly, if your consumption is average or below.

[JR]

only water the lawn once a week,

16000 gallons a month is pretty high. maybe you need to check for leaks. You could save around 60-75% of your bill roughly, if your consumption is average or below.

I water twice a day. Mine peaks at about 30,000 gallons/mo. in high summer. Agreed, that's a lot, but I am actually pretty water concious.

Our view of drought and that of you "Easterners" is very different. We had rain a couple of weeks ago for the first time since March or April. The unusual part was that we got rain a couple of weeks ago. We normally get no rain at all from May through November. Which, of course, is why the hot winds we get at this time of year leave us so susceptible the kinds of fires we've seen recently.

JR

[KenBurris]

19.8 CCF for 3 months - usually @ $145 for 3 mos., including sewer charges

[axa]

8 to 9 ccf per quarter for me and my wife.

im not bleeding heart environmentalist or anything as such.
But I just dont see how people can let themselves use so much.

[radhak]

8 to 9 ccf per quarter for me and my wife.

im not bleeding heart environmentalist or anything as such.
But I just dont see how people can let themselves use so much.

Actually when it comes to water usage, you could call me an environmentalist (bleeding or not is a different question ) - I'd go out of my way to conserve water.

And that's the reason I called the water dept rep to check my sprinklers (a free service); his report asked me to relocate a couple of sprinklers, change a couple others, and water only as infrequently as possible. His recommendation was that once-a-week is all that is needed. The idea is that your lawn learns to accomodate to the amount of water it receives. If you cut it down suddenly it will turn brown fast, but if you maintain the lesser level consistently it will come back it's original green. And this helps during drought conditions, as your lawn is already trained for lesser water. I tried it, and find it totally accurate.

(I invite others to follow this and see their water consumption fall without affecting their lawn in the long term).

Given that, I dunno how we could use less water than now (around 8.5 CCF). Our showers are the shortest duration possible, practically no baths, and our toilet-flushes (fittings) are recent enough to think they are generally efficient. I am guessing our usage could be the absolute minimum for a family of four living in a single-home.