[MarkJerling]

Private well, so no water bill.

Dishwasher only runs once a week.

Laundry is two loads a week.

Toilets are 1.5 liter/flush, and I use the woods except for number two.

Both showers have low flow heads, and we get wet, turn the water off, soap up, then back on to rinse.

We collect rainwater to irrigate the garden and flowerbeds.

Since Zoe died we have no dog to contact consume water.

Since there is no meter I would estimate our daily use to be around 30 gallons a day.

But I also get that there is little incentive to conserve, and most people are quite cavalier with water as a resource, and waste plenty of it.

Well done mate.
We're not nearly as efficient. Dishwasher runs daily, sometimes twice daily, but it is a very efficient machine. Washing machine runs daily, also quite a efficient machine. Shower runs for quite a while when there's a teenager in there! I get it done more quickly. It rains often enough so that garden does only seldom need watering. Dog, cats, birds and fish all need water. Although, the fish don't seem to drink much! LOL
Oh, and I fill the pool once a year.
I have no idea how much we use, we don't (as yet) have a meter. They're talking about installing meters this year.

[beholder3]

For reference, urban wastewater treatment plants are calculated for 300 l per day and person (so about 80 gallons). This includes any non-industrial use of water, as far as I remember.
Washing machines are a pretty big part of this number.

Hm. Here it says that German water utilities assume 460 liters = 100 gallons per day for a familiy of four. That would be 25 gallons/day and person on average. I found others stats for Germnay saying 130 liters per person and day (28 g/d&p). So yes, I assumed to little. But 100 is high.

[timb64]

Just worked out water usage in our house (two adults and a small dog) roughly 40 gallons per day at a cost of about $35 per month,at last I’ve found something that’s cheaper in the UK than the US (healthcare aside!)!!

[Serkevan]

Hm. Here it says that German water utilities assume 460 liters = 100 gallons per day for a familiy of four. That would be 25 gallons/day and person on average. I found others stats for Germnay saying 130 liters per person and day (28 g/d&p). So yes, I assumed to little. But 100 is high.

Yes, of course. The 300 liter calculation I mentioned is for the city and its non-industrial businesses - which involves a good deal more than what the inhabitants need supplied to their houses. It's also a conservative estimate for peak requirements, so probably 50% higher than it needs to be (although, then again, I've seen situations where a plant is designed for 60k equivalent-inhabitants even though it's darn well known that the serviced area includes ~100k... ). The point was that 500 gallons per person and day is ridiculously high, when waste plants are designed for a sixth of that .

Just checked for Spain, estimates are ~130 l/p&d as well.

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Last edited by Serkevan; 06-22-2020 at 06:58 AM.

[Rondec]

Just worked out water usage in our house (two adults and a small dog) roughly 40 gallons per day at a cost of about $35 per month,at last I’ve found something that’s cheaper in the UK than the US (healthcare aside!)!!

I suppose.

I have a well so I pay whatever the cost is of pumping it out of the ground.

[photoptimist]

Many places on this earth suffer from badly dropping ground water levels, so excessive use of water feels actually like stealing from our kids and following generations. The accelerating climate change does its own to make this even worse in many areas. Water will be the gold of the future (as it already is in many poor regions).

"Excessive" water use isn't a problem in many cases and places for two reasons:

First, most "uses" of water in urban areas don't really consume any water, they only borrow the water for a few minutes. Washing machines, toilets, sinks, showers, bath tubs, etc. borrow water and return it for treatment. That borrowed water could get used dozens of times between when it fell as rain and when it washed down a river back to the ocean. (Rural septic systems probably return most of the water to the ground unless water-loving plants are growing in or around the leach field.) The biggest true users of water (and the larger problem both as a cause of dropping ground water levels and a downside effect) is agriculture. Too many people are trying to grow huge quantities of the wrong crops in the wrong places. That also includes gardens and lawns with plants ill-suited to the local climate. Also, evaporative cooling for power plants, buildings, and homes also "uses" water in the sense of evaporating it into the air rather than returning it (of course, evaporative cooling has a much lower carbon footprint than regular AC!)

Second, the other huge fact is that water is a local commodity (although the scale of "local" can span hundreds or thousands of miles because it is defined by watersheds). Excessive water use in one location really only affects that location and others downstream. There's no global shortage of water. The point is that no amount of "saving water" in the US or Europe is going to help India.

[beholder3]

First, most "uses" of water in urban areas don't really consume any water, they only borrow the water for a few minutes.

That is only partially true for water taken from above ground sources (lakes, rivers etc). Huge regions consume massive amounts of water from (often deep) wells. That water will take years, centzuries or millenia to replenish.
This here says half of US drinking water is from wells: Groundwater Decline and Depletion

Second, the other huge fact is that water is a local commodity (although the scale of "local" can span hundreds or thousands of miles because it is defined by watersheds). Excessive water use in one location really only affects that location and others downstream. There's not global shortage of water. The point is that no amount of "saving water" in the US or Europe is going to help India.

When your "local" means "on continental scale" I agree. In real life actual bloody wars for water become more and more a risk. I won't elaborate to not get into politics here. Here is a fun list to filter for "trigger": Water Conflict Chronology

Generally I agree that agriculture (versus domestic use) is a big factor.

[mkgd1]

We collect rainwater to irrigate the garden and flowerbeds.

Rainwater? What is that?

---------- Post added 06-22-20 at 12:11 PM ----------

Hm. Here it says that German water utilities assume 460 liters = 100 gallons per day for a familiy of four. That would be 25 gallons/day and person on average. I found others stats for Germnay saying 130 liters per person and day (28 g/d&p). So yes, I assumed to little. But 100 is high.

According to the US EPA, 100gpd per person is the number to be used for wastewater plants for less than 50,000 people, residential use.

[photoptimist]

That is only partially true for water taken from above ground sources (lakes, rivers etc). Huge regions consume massive amounts of water from (often deep) wells. That water will take years, centzuries or millenia to replenish.
This here says half of US drinking water is from wells: Groundwater Decline and Depletion


When your "local" means "on continental scale" I agree. In real life actual bloody wars for water become more and more a risk. I won't elaborate to not get into politics here. Here is a fun list to filter for "trigger": Water Conflict Chronology

Generally I agree that agriculture (versus domestic use) is a big factor.

Agreed! Water can be a huge issue in drier places.

I live in a town where, until a few years ago, household rain barrels were illegal. The average home owner did not own any rights to the water that fell on their own roof and could not impede the flow of runoff. That seems insane and yet if water is a scarce resource, then it requires some means of controlling exactly who gets to use whatever rain fails on the land.

It's the same with minerals here. Most people don't own the rights to the minerals under their property, either. All the various "property rights' are severable and are be owned by different entities.

[Racer X 69]

There is no more, and no less, water on Earth today, than there was at the beginning of time. It isn’t being manufactured.

It is simply recycled. Animals and plants consume it, then it goes back into the Earth, to be recycled again, and again, and again . . . . .


. . . . that glass of water you just drank was drank by a dinosaur, and millions of other creatures, millions of times before you slaked your thirst with it.

[timb64]

There is no more, and no less, water on Earth today, than there was at the beginning of time. It isn’t being manufactured.

Very, very small amounts have been “lost” by being taken outside our atmosphere as part of the various space programs!

[swanlefitte]

There is no more, and no less, water on Earth today, than there was at the beginning of time. It isn’t being manufactured.

That is not true.

The amount of water on the planet has not always been the same, however. A research group at the Natural History Museum of Denmark has discovered this by measuring how hydrogen isotope ratios in the oceans have changed over time.
The Earth has lost a quarter of its water

Basically the lightest hydrogen isotopes have been lost to space reducing h2o on our planet.

[reeftool]

Our water use is up a little but we are still paying the minimum usage fee. There are only the 2 of us now. We're doing extra laundry because I'm not working and my work clothes were all cleaned by a service. The other thing is the gym's are closed. I maybe took 1 or 2 showers a week at home and my wife was pretty much the same. It has been unusually dry so I'm watering the garden more than I have been in recent years. I don't bother with the lawn. It's all pretty much brown.

[gaweidert]

Just worked out water usage in our house (two adults and a small dog) roughly 40 gallons per day at a cost of about $35 per month,at last I’ve found something that’s cheaper in the UK than the US (healthcare aside!)!!

The cost of healthcare shows up somewhere. You are still paying for it one way or the other.

[timb64]

The cost of healthcare shows up somewhere. You are still paying for it one way or the other.

Without my response getting overtly political,the main difference is that the cost of the majority of UK healthcare doesn't include an element of providers' profit/shareholders' dividend hence it is generally cheaper.I accept it is paid for one way or another!