General / Off-Topic How Much Water Do You Use Each Day? It Might Shock You.

Alien

Alien
Most of us take water for granted. Turn on a tap (faucet for you 'Mericans) and out it flows, and we just let it go down the plug hole without a second thought.
My water company charges me for the water I use. I have what they call a "smart meter", which is supposed to make charging me more accurate, so apparently, I pay for the water I use and not pay for water I don't. Their website says I use 100 litres a day. I thought that was ridiculous, I couldn't possibly be using 100 litres every day!

So I decided to measure just how much water I was using. It has shocked me.

Biggest offenders first:
Showering - 43L
Washing machine - 38L
Toilet - 8L each flush, possibly about 10 times each day
Washing up / kitchen sink - 8L + 8L just to get hot water to come through. I might do the washing up 3 times in a day.
Kettle - 2L

TOTAL WATER USAGE : 211L

But I don't use the washing machine every day, I don't wash my hair every day. This is still a horrendous amount of water for one person to be using. So I'm going to make some changes. I'm going to catch the water I use to run the tap to get hot water before I do the washing up, and use that in the kettle or to water the plants. I'm only going to have the shower running when I need to rinse off after applying soap instead of leaving it running all the time I'm in the shower. I'm going to do laundry on an economy wash setting. I don't know yet how much water I'll save doing this, but hopefully it'll help.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
I have a separate rain water tank for flushing the toilet and gardening. It saves a lot.
You can also route your sink drain into the toilet bowl and use it for flushing. Not as good as rain water, but at least you use it twice before it goes down the drain (literally)

As for washing clothes, you could use a service instead of washing them yourself. They are more effective because they wash in bulk, but you need more clothes. :LOL:

But ultimately, the amount of water you're going to save (or we all) is a drop in the ocean in comparison to the drinking water wasted on large scale by factories and corporations, so it really is just for your own peace of mind.
 

Morbad

Morbad
I probably use a thousand liters a day.

I do two or three loads of laundry a day, my cue to get out of the shower is when I've emptied the hot water tank, I let the water run before I drink it because the pipes are 60+ years old and lead leeches into it if it sits in them too long, and I'm a compulsive hand washer (probably three dozen times a day, on average). I have low flow toilets...which apparently only means they get clogged by anything even vaguely solid and need to be flushed more.

This is the one area where I am not willing to compromise, and I'd build my own waste reclamation system, AWG, and whatever it took to power them, if it came to it. Hell, I'd probably put the blood of my neighbors through a reverse osmosis system before I gave up long, hot, showers. Fortunately, I live in the immediate vicinity of the largest collection of liquid fresh water on the planet and water is quite inexpensive here.
 

Vasco Sapien

Vasco Sapien
I rarely 'HaH'egh', it is a comfort and typically unnecessary. I occasionally wash myself but its entirely functional. I don't use perfumes or smelly soaps, so what water i do use isnt polluted.

My toilet is a Composting toilet and by that i mean the back garden lawn. If its good enough for the Dog its good enough for me.

However, i drink alot of Coffee, so i'd imagine that is my largest area of water consumption.
 

Manticore

Manticore
Yes; I think water supply/usage has become a major issue.

As for taking it for granted: if we live in a country where there is access to clean/drinkable water at the turn of a tap, we're lucky.

Water standards and the hostility created by water resources that cross international boundaries has become a real issue for the 21st century planet.... an extremely serious and worrying issue.

Wars will be waged over water in the future... just like they have been over other resources.

It's precious stuff........
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
There is certainly a lot of progress to be made in individual behavior.

I think that private swimming pools should be banned if there are problems with groundwater.

And also car washes should be rationed.

And the corn crops for livestock, for example, which require huge amounts of water.
 

lysan

lysan
Alien said:
Most of us take water for granted. Turn on a tap (faucet for you 'Mericans) and out it flows, and we just let it go down the plug hole without a second thought.
My water company charges me for the water I use. I have what they call a "smart meter", which is supposed to make charging me more accurate, so apparently, I pay for the water I use and not pay for water I don't. Their website says I use 100 litres a day. I thought that was ridiculous, I couldn't possibly be using 100 litres every day!

So I decided to measure just how much water I was using. It has shocked me.

Biggest offenders first:
Showering - 43L
Washing machine - 38L
Toilet - 8L each flush, possibly about 10 times each day
Washing up / kitchen sink - 8L + 8L just to get hot water to come through. I might do the washing up 3 times in a day.
Kettle - 2L

TOTAL WATER USAGE : 211L

But I don't use the washing machine every day, I don't wash my hair every day. This is still a horrendous amount of water for one person to be using. So I'm going to make some changes. I'm going to catch the water I use to run the tap to get hot water before I do the washing up, and use that in the kettle or to water the plants. I'm only going to have the shower running when I need to rinse off after applying soap instead of leaving it running all the time I'm in the shower. I'm going to do laundry on an economy wash setting. I don't know yet how much water I'll save doing this, but hopefully it'll help.
Click to expand...

Have been collecting rainwater for years, not to protect the environment, just because it was much better than using the water from my well for washing, flushing the toilet and even showers.

Put a filter on it and you're good to go without any worries.
https://www.amazon.com/AquaHomeGrou...water+filter&qid=1559575191&s=gateway&sr=8-25
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
I live in rural America in an area that receives plenty of rain. My water comes from a well in a very sparsely-populated area, and it goes to a septic tank which filters the water back into a leach field. Some of that water is taken up by soil and transpired back to the air via the grasses growing there, the rest filters back down to the water table to be used again. Even during years of drought I've not come close to drying up my well.

So running out of clean water is the least of my concerns, though I admit that I'm a 1% 'er when it comes to land ownership.
 

Morbad

Morbad
Evidently my thousand liters a day was insufficient to maintain clear flow through my sagging sewer line as I just spent all weekend unclogging it and cleaning up the mess the clog resulted in.

I could replace the line, but it would take about three hundred years to pay for itself vs. just using huge amounts of water and lye.
 

lysan

lysan
Old Duck said:
I live in rural America in an area that receives plenty of rain. My water comes from a well in a very sparsely-populated area, and it goes to a septic tank which filters the water back into a leach field. Some of that water is taken up by soil and transpired back to the air via the grasses growing there, the rest filters back down to the water table to be used again. Even during years of drought I've not come close to drying up my well.

So running out of clean water is the least of my concerns, though I admit that I'm a 1% 'er when it comes to land ownership.
Click to expand...
Owning land is not always expensive, I know many people who hate living in rural areas, no shopping, no restaurants, no fancy boutiques..... ahhh yes it's a blessing to live out here away from "civilization".
 

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
The worst thing is that after I've used the water, it flows directly into space and won't be available on earth ever again.

Surprisingly enough, it's an issue in areas where aquifers can't keep up with irresponsible population or industry growth, so the question should rather be "how many babies have people popped out into arid areas?"

Alien said:
Biggest offenders first:
Washing machine - 38L
Click to expand...
Which is highly efficient compared to handwashing, and similar to
Toilet - 8L each flush, possibly about 10 times each day
Click to expand...
one could consider it a sanitary necessity.
Washing up / kitchen sink - 8L + 8L just to get hot water to come through. I might do the washing up 3 times in a day.
Click to expand...
Get a dishwasher.
Kettle - 2L
Click to expand...
You drink that. You may be able to chalk it up to unnecessary energy use, but all in all, if you cut those two litres, you may die.
 
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Alien

Alien
Shadowdancer said:
The worst thing is that after I've used the water, it flows directly into space and won't be available on earth ever again.

Surprisingly enough, it's an issue in areas where aquifers can't keep up with irresponsible population or industry growth, so the question should rather be "how many babies have people popped out into arid areas?"


Which is highly efficient compared to handwashing, and similar to

one could consider it a sanitary necessity.

Get a dishwasher.

You drink that. You may be able to chalk it up to unnecessary energy use, but all in all, if you cut those two litres, you may die.
Click to expand...
re Dishwasher - I don't own the flat I am living in, so I'd have to get permission to alter the kitchen units to fit a dishwasher, and then it means paying a plumber to alter the pipwork under the sink (again part of needing permission) as I wouldn't try to attempt that as I don't know what I'm doing. Or I could just continue manually washing the dishes.

re Drinking water - I try to save as much of the 8L I use to get hot water, and I am finding that is plenty to use in place of other times I run the taps.

Someone mentioned earlier in the thread about the water company and how much water they negligently waste, and while that may be true, that doesn't excuse me taking water for granted and not doing what I can to cut down how much I use, both to save the planet and to try to lower my water bill (yes, that may a futile effort, but there's no harm in trying).
 

Shadowdancer

Shadowdancer
Alien said:
that doesn't excuse me taking water for granted and not doing what I can to cut down how much I use, both to save the planet and to try to lower my water bill
Click to expand...
The issue is, the only real part is your bill unless you're living in one of the places where people shouldn't live or work, e.g., Las Vegas, or the Spanish plateau. Your personal water use isn't a problem outside "events" like extremely dry summers that can see regional shortages. You can do a little good by small things like cutting back on the amount of dishwashing soap you use and generally not flushing incompatible materials down the drain.

You will have a bigger impact by avoiding products from problematic places like Spain where you don't know if that tomato is coming from an illegal farm pumping down the already catastrophically low water table, but IMAO the only thing that will really help those places is when they turn irrevocably (to the limited minds of people trying to exploit them) uninhabitable and unprofitable and are left to themselves again.
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
shreddog said:
:oops: That would be .. weird. I need my water fresh from the spring :sneaky:
Besides, it's free, and we have an endless abundance of it here, supplied by gravity.
Click to expand...
I was not saying a commercial water bottle.

I meant a bottle that you fill every day with your spring water.

:)
 
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