Water: How much do you use?

How much water do you use per day? I bet its a lot more than you would ever guess. The average american house hold uses 350 gallons of water per day. Its something that we easily forget about. Every time we turn on the tap there is clean water that is safe to drink, bathe and cook with. How many times have you turned on the tap and considered how many millions of people don't have access to fresh water. The average American uses the same amount of water as 900 Kenyans. 

So where is all the water being used in our homes? The average shower uses between 3-5 gallons of water per minute. Wanna take a bath, that's 35 to 50 gallons of water. Old clothes washers, or any that aren't the high efficiency type use 40 gallons of water per load. Dishwashers use 10-20 gallons of water per load depending on the efficiency of the dish washer. Flushing a toilet takes 3-4 gallons per flush unless you have recently replaced your siphon valve to reduce that to 1.6 gallons per flush. Add that all up and each person uses an average of 80-100 gallons of water per day. 

Now that's just the water you use for your own personal needs. What about washing your car, or watering your lawn, or eating a steak? To apply one inch of water to your lawn it takes 62 gallons per 100 square feet (that's only a 10' x 10' area). That doesn't sound so bad, but considering that average laws are 1000 to 1500 square feet, that means you have to use 6230 to 9345 gallons of water every time you water your lawn! 

So next time you turn on your tap, think about how much you actually use and how much you need. Simple things such as shortening your shower time by 2 minutes can save 8 gallons per day. You can really reduce your water consumption if you just cut back in little places with a couple things you do. Just think, 2 minutes less shower time could mean saving over 2500 gallons of water per year.

http://www.alternet.org/water/celebrating-world-water-day-reducing-water-use-united-states

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html