How much water does my home use?
Showers, sink faucets and toilets can all be made to use water more efficiently... and you can change the way you use them.
The average US citizen uses about 70 gallons of water per day for indoor use. To calculate your per person daily water usage rate, you can check your water bills (divide the total volume used by the number of people in the household, then the number of days in the billing period). Alternatively, you could use this handy online calculator, which helps show you how much water is used by different activities (like showering or washing clothes).
How can I conserve water?
Some of the simplest and least expensive ways to conserve water involve making small changes in how you use water.
For example, do you and your family:
- turn off the water while you brush your teeth or shave?
- take short showers rather than deep baths?
- run your clothes washer and dishwasher only when they are fully loaded?
- use a dishpan or plug the sink when washing and rinsing dishes by hand?
- have an automatic shut-off nozzle on your outdoor hose?
- water your plants during the coolest part of the day?
How do I check for leaks?
An average of about 14 percent of residential water is lost through leaking fixtures or pipes. You still pay for this water!
An easy way to check whether you have leaks in your house is to read your water meter. Turn off all water fixtures inside and outside your home, and check the reading on your water meter. Wait one hour, ensuring that no one uses any water, and then check the meter again. If the meter reading has changed, you have a leak somewhere in your home.
Pipes
A leaky pipe is usually pretty obvious. Visually inspect all pipes in your home and look for telltale watermarks on walls or ceilings. In the yard, the ground above the water line may stay wet continuously or water may actually flow on the surface. If a pipe is leaking, repair or replace it. Not only will this save you water, it could also forestall other problems related to dampness (mold or termites, anyone?).
Toilets
Leaking toilets are common and can be large sources of water loss. A leaking toilet can waste anywhere from several gallons to more than 100 gallons per day… that’s over a quarter million gallons per year! Leaking toilets are not as easily identifiable as leaking faucets. The following are clues that you may have a leak:
- If you have to jiggle the handle to make a toilet stop running;
- If you regularly hear sounds from a toilet that is not being used; or
- If a toilet periodically turns the water on (runs) for 15 seconds or so without anyone touching the handle.
Even if your toilet does not display any of the above symptoms, it could still be leaking. These silent leaks can go undetected for long periods of time, potentially wasting thousands of gallons of water.
To check your toilet for silent leaks, do the following:
- Remove the cover on the toilet tank and set it aside;
- Remove any in-tank bowl cleaners and flush so that water in the bowl and tank are clear;
- Add dye to the tank (You can use dye capsules or tablets from the hardware store, but food coloring or powdered fruit drink mixes work well). Use enough dye so that the water has a deep hue;
- Wait for 30 minutes (Do not use toilet during this time period);
- If after 30 minutes the water in the bowl contains dye, then the toilet is leaking (A properly operating toilet will store water in the tank indefinitely without any water running into the bowl).
There are two possible culprits when a toilet leaks, the flush valve or the refill valve. To determine which valve is responsible for the leak, draw a pencil line on the inside of the tank at the water line. Turn the water supply for the toilet off (located behind the toilet) and wait for 20 to 30 minutes. If the water level remains the same, it means the leak is occurring at the refill valve (unit in the left side of the tank). If the water level falls below the pencil mark, the flush valve (unit located in the center of the tank) is leaking.
Most homeowners are capable of making their own toilet repairs. Visit your local home improvement or hardware store, purchase the parts, turn off the water supply to the toilet, and follow the directions. With a little effort, you can conserve many gallons of water and reduce your water bill at the same time.
Faucets
A leaking faucet is easily identified, but do you know how much water can be wasted from what seems like an insignificant drip? To find out, count the number of drips per minute. You can then use this drip calculator to estimate the volume of water lost per day. Most faucet drips are easily fixed: it may even be a job you can do yourself.
Should I retrofit or replace fixtures and appliances?
Top-loading clothes washers typically use more water per load than front-loading ones.
Once you have repaired any leaks in your home, the next step is to evaluate the efficiency of your current fixtures and appliances. Often simple retrofits can conserve a lot of water.
Fiddling with faucets
Retrofitting your faucet with an aerator will help save water in your home. A faucet aerator is a small circular screen that is screwed into the faucet. It reduces flow by adding air to the water, giving the sensation of more water with less volume. An aerator can reduce the flow to about 1to 2 gallons per minute (gpm), reducing your water use by half. Aerators are inexpensive and easy to install, but some older faucets may not be able to accommodate an aerator.
Check to see if aerators are already installed on any faucets. Even if aerators have been installed, they may be older and less efficient (ones installed before about 1978 still allow 3-6 gpm through). If the flow from your faucet exceeds 2.5 gpm, you can save water by installing a new aerator.
If you are installing new faucets for any reason, look for ones that use less than 2.5 gpm.
Tinkering with toilets
Toilets made before 1993 use between 3.5 gallons per flush (gpf) and 8 gpf. New high efficiency toilets use 1.6 gpf or less. Depending on how inefficient your old toilet is, you could reduce your water use by up to 75 percent by installing a new efficient toilet. There are other alternative toilets available, including dual flush and composting toilets. Fixtures must comply with NJ Codes Regulations (your certified plumber is aware of these regulations).
You can also reduce water use in older toilets easily and inexpensively by simply installing a displacement device. You can save a half-gallon per flush, which equates to, on average, 12 gallons per day per household. These devices work by displacing water in the tank, thereby reducing the water used per flush. Hardware stores sell plastic or rubber bags that can be filled with water and hung from the side of the tank, or you can place some pebbles in an empty half-gallon milk jug, or other durable container, and fill it with water.
Toilet dams work in a similar fashion, by blocking off an area of the toilet tank to decrease the amount of water per flush. Another device that can be used is an early closure device that causes the flapper to close early, releasing a reduced amount of water per flush.
(Do not place bricks in your toilet tank as they can dissolve and cause future plumbing problems.)
Swapping out showerheads
Conserving water in the shower will also lead to substantial energy savings, since showers use hot as well as cold water.
Low-volume showerheads use 2.5 gpm or less, while older ones use as much as 5 gpm or more. By replacing your conventional showerhead with a low-volume one, you can save as much as 50 percent of the water you use for showering (on average, about 38 gallons per day per household saved).
Low-volume showerheads conserve water through mixing air and water and using different spray patterns to give the sensation of a higher-volume shower.
Some showerheads also feature temporary shut-off valves that allow the user to turn off the water while shampooing or washing while maintaining the desired temperature the same.
Altering appliances
On average about 22 percent of indoor residential water is used to wash clothes. The best way to improve clothes washer efficiency is to replace an old inefficient machine with a new high efficiency washer. Traditional, top-loading clothes washers use approximately 41 gallons per load (gpl) and high efficiency models use a little more than half that, about 23 gpl.
Dishwashers account for only about 1.5 percent of indoor residential water use (8-23 gallons per load); however, more efficient models will reduce water use by about 50 percent. It is usually more efficient to wash a full load of dishes in the dishwasher rather than hand washing the same dishes in the sink.
Since appliances use electricity as well as water, when shopping for new appliances, it’s worth looking for Energy Star ratings in addition to Water Sense ratings.