Understanding where and how much water we use is the first step in beginning to conserve one of our most precious resources.
This simple home water checkup will allow you to understand household consumption.
After calculating your water patterns, you can begin to conserve in ways that workfor your lifestyle.
- Showers:
- Multiply the number of showers taken each day in your household by the average number of minutes spent in the shower.
- Multiply the result by 4 gallons per minute to determine the approximate gallons of water used for showers each day.
- Baths:
- A. Multiply the number of baths taken each day by 40 gallons to determine the approximate water used for bathing each day. Multiply the number of people in your household by 4.
- Multiply the result times 5 gallons per flush to determine the approximate water used for flushing the toilet in one day.
- Faucets:
- Total the number of times household members use faucets to shave, brush teeth, and wash hands or faces.
- Multiply that number by the average minutes used.
- Multiply the result by 3 gallons per minute to determine the approximate amount of water used from the faucet each day.
- Laundry:
- Multiply the number of loads washed each week by 55 gallons.
- Divide this number by 7 to determine approximate daily consumption of water for laundry.
- Dishwasher:
- Multiply the number of times the dishwasher is used each week by 15 gallons.
- Divide this number by 7 to determine approximate daily consumption of water for the dishwasher.
- Hand Washing Dishes:
- Multiply the number of times dishes are washed per day by 3.
- Multiply the result by the average number of minutes the water is ran to determine approximate daily water consumption for dishes.
- Dripping water:
- Dripping faucets in the winter time can use about 1 gallon of water every 10 to 15 minutes per faucet.
- Multiplying this number by the minutes left on over a months time can lead to an extra 1 to 6 thousand gallons of water usage on your bill.