Average Water Usage in the United States
Drought
Drought means less water in your local reservoirs, which means less water flowing from your tap. As we’ve previously discussed, thanks to the effects of drought, more than 850 million people worldwide lack access to safe, clean drinking water. But this problem isn’t just outside of the United States. According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), “In the United States, drought is the second-most costly form of natural disaster (behind hurricanes), exacting an average toll of $9.6 billion in damage and loss per event.” Additionally, reports have estimated that between 1960 and 2010, the natural consumption of water, specifically from humans, “increased the frequency of drought by 25 percent.”
But drought isn’t the only environmental factor affecting our water usage in the United States and beyond.
Aging Infrastructure
Our aging infrastructure can also act as a detriment to accessing constantly flowing, clean water. Pipes lined with lead are still a prevalent issue, and older pipes that are corroded or clogged with sediment can also mean you get less water through your faucet at a slower rate. According to the NRDC, “faulty meters, crumbling pipes, leaky water mains—cost the United States an estimated 2.1 trillion gallons in lost drinkable water each year.”
Water pressure in your home can be affected by even more than that, on an individual level. For example, a leak in your pipe isn’t just an added expense to your monthly utility costs, it also lowers your water pressure, as the water escapes through cracks in your pipe instead of going to your faucet. This inhibits water usage on an individual level, and if you’re using well water, on a communal level.
According to the NRDC, “faulty meters, crumbling pipes, leaky water mains—cost the United States an estimated 2.1 trillion gallons in lost drinkable water each year.”
Factors that cause lower pressure
Water pressure in your home can be affected by even more than that, on an individual level.
For example, a leak in your pipe isn’t just an added expense to your monthly utility costs, it also lowers your water pressure, as the water escapes through cracks in your pipe instead of going to your faucet. This inhibits water usage on an individual level, and if you’re using well water, on a communal level.
Elevation
The basic rules of gravity say what goes up, must come down. Gravity keeps your water flowing from tap to drain. As a result, how high your home sits, in relation to your water line, can also affect how much water pressure you have in your home. This results in higher or lower water usage on any given day.
Broken pressure regulator
Pressure regulators help stabilize the water pressure in your home. If yours is broken it can cause your water pressure to be too weak or too strong. Having a pressure regulator will help extend the life of your plumbing and features, and help prevent leaks from occurring in your features.
Leaks in plumbing
Leaks in your pipes could be preventing adequate pressure from reaching your faucets and shower heads.
Small leaks typically won’t affect your pressure, but if you have multiple small leaks or larger leaks this can affect your pressure. In searching for leaks under your sinks and features look for signs of pooling, mold, or mildew as tell-tale signs of a leak. If you are worried you have a leak under your foundation you may want to hire a plumber for an inspection as they have the proper equipment to find those. Leaks under your house can erode away your foundation and cause problems with your house’s structural foundation.
Water usage: Will we ever run out?
So that brings us to a question that won’t just affect the United States as a whole, but all of us individually as well: will we ever run out of water?
The answer is more complicated than “yes” or “no”. For starters, the biggest consumer of water is not one individual person, but the agricultural industry, using 70 percent of clean drinking water across the globe. This includes both crop, and food production.
A large portion of water is committed to growing food to feed livestock, making livestock one of the largest consumers of water in the United States.
So while the answer is technically no, we are not running out of water as a whole—we are running out of access to clean, drinking water. According to a report from The Guardian, “about one in nine of the planet’s population – lack access to clean, affordable water within half an hour of their homes”.
Things like climate change and population expansion certainly aren’t helping. With the onslaught of more frequent droughts, fires, and storms, as well as rapid population growth—the ability to get clean drinking water is getting harder by the minute. To make matters worse, researchers at NASA found that 21 out of 37 of the world’s largest aquifers are being depleted lower than their sustainability tipping points. This means that we’re using water from these aquifers faster than we are replenishing them, and as the average water usage increases, these aquifers will deplete even more quickly.
A recent report from Reuters confirms this isn’t just happening the world over, but in our own backyard, too. “As many as 96 water basins out of the 204 supplying most of the country with freshwater could fail to meet monthly demand starting in 2071…”
So what can you do? A few things can certainly help on the individual level: going vegetarian 2-3 times a week is recommended since, as mentioned above, the the meat industry is one of the largest water consumers in the country. Learning about the impacts of climate change and what we can do to lessen our carbon footprint can help, too. More than anything, investing in a water filtration system will help ensure that you can access clean, drinking water, no matter what. If you invest in a filter bottle, for every one of our cartridges you use, you save 600 disposable water bottles from entering the environment. We can “cheers” to that.
Indoor Water Use at Home
When most people in the US want fresh, clean water, all they have to do is turn on a faucet.
Still, no place is immune from drought, so it’s important to be conservative with your water use at home, no matter where you live.
On average in the US, water use at home (water from the tap, toilet, dishwasher, etc.) adds up to about 138 gallons per household per day, or 60 gallons per person per day.
American Water Use at Home – How Many Gallons do We Use?
Recent studies of how Americans use water throughout their homes show that, for most people, indoor water use is highest in the bathroom, followed by the laundry room. Table 1 provides a breakdown.
Table 1. A daily breakdown of water use in the US:
| Appliance/Device | Household per Day | Percent of Total |
| Toilet | 33 gallons | 24% |
| Shower | 27 gallons | 20% |
| Faucet | 27 gallons | 20% |
| Washing Machine | 22 gallons | 16% |
| Leaks | 18 gallons | 13% |
| Bath | 4 gallons | 3% |
| Dishwasher | 2 gallons | 2% |
| Other | 4 gallons | 3% |
| Total | 138 gallons | 100% (101% with rounding) |
SOURCE: Residential End Uses of Water, V2 (2016)
Leaks are, perhaps, the most surprising use of water on this list – they amount to 18 gallons of water per household per day lost to leaky toilets, appliances and faucets.
Saving Water with Water-Efficient Toilets, Showerheads and More
Fortunately, saving water around the house is easier now than ever before. Switching to water-saving fixtures and appliances can reduce indoor water use by twenty percent. The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense website lists many water-saving products. The Department of Energy’s ENERGY STAR label also has an extensive list of energy- and water-saving appliances, like dishwashers and washing machines.
Newer bathroom fixtures and appliances like toilets, showerheads and faucets are designed to be more water-efficient than older models and can save hundreds of gallons a month. For example, older toilets use up to six gallons per flush, whereas low-flow toilets (or any toilet manufactured after 1994) use 1.6 gallons or less. Likewise, older showerheads flow well over the federal limit of 2.5 gallons per minute, while low-flow models can flow no higher than two gallons per minute. Some shower fixtures, especially those with multiple nozzles, exceed the federal limit, so these fixtures require reduced shower time in order to save water.
Likewise, newer dishwashers and clothes washers use water much more efficiently than older models. Water efficient dishwashers save more than 5,000 gallons of water per year compared with washing dishes by hand (and use less than half as much energy, too). Newer washing machines handle much bigger loads of clothing with much less water. A full-sized ENERGY STAR-certified clothes washer uses 13 gallons of water per load, compared to the 23 gallons used by a standard machine, saving over 3,000 gallons of water per year.
With a little bit of research, water- and energy-saving products can be purchased that provide enhanced performance, help save on water bills and have the added benefit of saving water for future generations. If new appliances aren’t in the budget, significant water savings can still be achieved just by finding and fixing leaks.
Heating and Cooling Are Water (and Energy) Hogs!
Because it takes a lot of water to make electricity, water heating can be a big energy user – it’s right up there with heating and cooling and running appliances, electronics and lighting.
Those long, hot showers feel good but they waste both water and energy, and although modern fixtures and appliances are a great way to save gallons, it’s still important to simply turn off the tap.
Read about how much water it takes to manufacture all of your consumer goods.
Water consumption, water consumption, water consumption rates
Water consumption is the most important indicator that is used when accounting for water consumption. This parameter is necessary at the design stage of water supply systems and during their further operation.
In the process of designing water supply systems for various objects and purposes, the most important issue is the calculation of the maximum amount of water required of proper quality. At the same time, various indicators and criteria are taken into account, which form the overall picture of the required amount (consumption) of water. nine0003
The centralized water supply system in Russia is built in such a way that all water entering a house or apartment is water of drinking standards.
Therefore, the water in the tank of your toilet is, in fact, drinking.
When designing an individual water supply system, it is more correct to divide water into three streams according to their intended purpose. First stream — water for household needs (technical), second — sanitary water and third — drinking water.
In all three cases, the requirements for water quality will be different, because if all water is brought to the standard — drinking, then this will require large financial costs.
Obtaining water for household needs is not technically difficult. It is necessary to remove mechanical suspensions from it and reduce the concentration of harmful substances to reasonable (acceptable values). This water can be used for watering plants, draining sewerage systems and other household purposes. The water purification system will be simple and cheap. For the preparation of sanitary water, a multi-stage water purification may be required (softening, iron removal, filtration on fine filters, improvement of the organoleptic properties of water — odor, color, etc.
). The water treated at this stage can be used in hot water supply systems, supplied to dishwashers and washing machines, and used for hygiene procedures. nine0003
The last, most important part of the water treatment system is the production of drinking water. For this, various fine filters, multi-stage cleaning systems, including systems with reverse osmosis technology, are used. When calculating the required flow rate, it is advisable to be guided by SNiP 2.04.01-85 and, depending on the improvement and equipping of housing with household appliances, one can take the value of the social need — 150-200 l / day per person. In houses with an increased level of comfort, the figure rises to 250-400 liters per person per day. The amount of drinking water recommended for use in calculations is 5 liters per person per day. Industrial water consumption is individual, because they use it to wash cars, garden tools, paths, water plants, etc., and everyone’s need for this is different. We recommend that you take an average value for calculation — 50 liters of household water per day.
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Peak water consumption (l/min) and daily water consumption (l/day) are the most important parameters for selecting water treatment systems. When calculating peak demand, it is necessary to take into account the possibility of opening several taps at the same time. For example, even if a family of 5 lives in a house, it is unlikely that they will all take a shower or wash their hands at the same time.
Calculate the maximum one-time consumption of sanitary water, in l / min using the formula:
10l/min * ½ of the number of people living
Thus, for a family of 5 it turns out:
10l/min * ½ *5 people = 25 l/min water consumption per plumbing fixture.
The parameter of peak water consumption is the main parameter for selecting the performance of the cleaning system. Incorrectly selected equipment will not provide the desired degree of purification and may lead to a breakthrough of untreated water.
Daily consumption of sanitary water is calculated based on the number of residents and the average consumption rate per consumer.
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For a family of 5:
5 * 300 l/day = 1500 l/day,
where 300 l/day is the consumption rate of the consumer. (See Table 1: residential buildings of apartment type with water supply, sewerage and baths from 1500 to 1700 mm long, equipped with showers).
The question often arises about the ratio of cold and hot water at a daily flow rate. To simplify the calculations, the following ratios can be taken: 60% — cold water, 40% — hot.
Thus, when selecting equipment for water treatment, the following parameters can be used: average daily consumption per person — 300 l, of which: drinking — 5 l, cold sanitary — 145 l, hot — 100 l, household (technical) — 50 l. nine0003
That’s why there are three stages of filtration:
- the first — filtration of all water — domestic, sanitary and drinking;
- second — sanitary and drinking;
- the third — only drinking.
This division allows you to economically and most correctly select the water treatment system for your home.
* and a bath. nine0003
SNiP 2.04.01-85: data on water consumption by sanitary appliances is indicated in Appendix 1, and data on consumer water consumption rates are in Appendix 2.
» -Yandex Kew
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Anonymous question
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PSS
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Jul 2020 · Jul 2020 · Center-pss.ru0003
Answer
Oleg Nokhrin
Standard water consumption per person is 180 liters per day.
Therefore, this is 180 * 30 = 5400 liters per month (5.4 cubic meters per month).
Of course, you can determine the real consumption by comparing the readings for several months.
If you need a quality project, please contact us!
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Bogatova Natalya Yufirovna
September 22, 2021
180 liters a day is not realistic, we get about 10 liters of water or even less for two of us.
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Svetlana
175
I collect gifts in a box and decorate it for the holidays 19 Dec 2019
We also have a family of two adults, but we spend a month of cold water 4.3, and hot 2.4. We wash in the shower, there is no bath) I even manage to turn on the dishwasher once a month at this expense.
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Sergey Rozinin
March 16, 2020
We have a family of 2 people and a gas water heater, my wife pays 8 cubic meters per month, in my opinion this is a lot!
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Anonymous answer January 29, 2021
I have somewhere 0.9-1 cold cube and 0.2-0.3 hot. 1 person, age 24
Dishwasher 4-6 times a month in eco mode, bath 2-3 times a month, washing machine 5-7 times a month, shared and hygienic shower every day of course, wet cleaning every day. Well, the kettle, cooking. Look like that’s it
But I don’t pour water, my youth in Germany taught me to save money, for example, I went into the shower, got wet like … Read more
19.7 K
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Rosvodokanal Group of companies
6
Leading Russian operator of centralized water supply and sanitation systems.
· 24 Jan 2022
It varies from country to country. For example, in the Republic of Niger, a family of 5 people spends 60 liters of water per day, i.e. for 1 person 12 liters. In Myanmar, one person consumes approximately 25 liters per day. In Bolivia, the average consumption is 33 liters per day, in India — 28 liters. In the USA, in New York it is about 330 liters, and in Russia each of us uses about 220 liters of water per day. nine0003
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S.G.
5
11 Mar 2022
I reduced the pressure by half. There are two of us a month, 3 hot and 5 cold, sometimes less.
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Anonymous reply February 21, 2022
4 people, 2 adults, 2 children
Hot 2-3 per month, cold 4-5.
But this is taking into account that my wife and I mostly swim after classes in the fitness center in the same place (4 times a week).
In fact, the expense is dishes (there is no dishwasher), a washing machine 2 times a week, and children, respectively, well, little things (wash hands, wash, etc.)
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Mark Soshkin
10 Mar 2021
in a private house, we live in the south…8 people, 4 bathrooms, 4 washbasins and 4 baths, laundry 4 times a week. We also water the flowers 4 times a week. consumption per month 35 — 40 m3. nine0003
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K. I.
7
Oct 27, 2020
Raised bills for two years. You can clearly see where he lived alone, where he lived together (the consumption is sometimes 4, then 8-10 cubic meters).