Using their data, I determined that our average water usage from May 1 2014 - February 12 2015 has been less than the average 4-person household in San Francisco, which is 49 gallons per person per day. During that period we used 33 gallons per person per day. Go, us!
However, being under this average, which is well below the average American's use, is still substantially higher than it could be. We are clearly above the world average water usage of 13 gallons per person per day.
What is really utilitarian about my utility bill is that since my water usage data are provided on a day-to-day basis, it is possible to determine the days my family used the most and least water, and we can track that usage to our behaviors on that day. For example, on February 4, we used 201 gallons. On that day, we were preparing to take off for the weekend, so I did a bunch of laundry, and we may have taken several showers too. This reminds me that we could probably do a better job of wearing our clothes multiple times before washing them. I know I am guilty of throwing things in the dirty clothes hamper too often.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has an informative website that provides data on overall water use in the USA, although their graph dates back to 1999.
My utilities bill brings up a couple additional thoughts. These data could be a tool of "social facilitation", a tendency for behavior to improve when in the presence of other people. Should we be talking about our water bills more and commenting on what we have done in the privacy of our own homes to decrease water usage? Perhaps if we generally had a better sense of how our neighbors use water, this knowledge could spur more efficient water usage through creating new norms.
I believe this is what the SFPUC is trying to do with their website data, conservation tips, incentives to replace shower heads and toilets, etc., but this has certainly been off my radar, and water usage has not been a hot topic in my community! I haven't started keeping a day-to-day diary of how we use water (e.g. # of loads of laundry, showers, baths, watering the garden), but this could assist in tracking daily water usage to particular behaviors. I will attempt to implement this for the remainder of our water challenge month to generate more ideas on how to use less water. Additionally, SFPUC offers free home evaluations. I will have that done in the near future and report on any additional ways to conserve water.
As for an update on the water challenge so far, we have used an average of 18 gallons of water per person per day since February 12! This is a reduction in our daily usage by about 45%. Interestingly the significant change in our household water use corresponds to the graph above showing that flushing the toilet and taking showers accounts for about 43% of domestic water use.
My husband and I think we can sustain our new practices, which is key, I think to permanently changing our ways. The changes we have made are small ones and don't impact us in any real way. Here is what we have succeeded in doing differently so far this month:
1. We are taking navy showers and not waiting for the water to heat up before showering. We may buy a tankless water heater to make our showers a bit more luxurious in the long term - warm instead of partially cold - but we have both found we don't feel like we are missing much to take substantially shorter showers. I am starting to think about a long soak as a treat and something to look forward to. Here is where the magic happens:
2. We have been flushing the toilet about every 3 pees. As long as we keep the lid closed, this has been no problem and not stinky. We haven't found our cat drinking the yellow water. Sometimes our kids forget about the water challenge and flush more often, but flushing has decreased.
3. I have been collecting some of my used kitchen sink water - water I used to wash my hands or rinse a dish - and throwing it on my potted plants outside my kitchen window instead of collecting fresh water. So far so good.
4. I have only been running full loads of dishes and laundry, and we are doing a better job of wearing clothes 2-3 times before washing. I am trying to teach my kids to examine their clothes before tossing them in the hamper.
Finally, I would also like to know what is an equitable and sustainable quantity of water to use each day. This is complicated, but if anyone out there has a reasoned estimate, please let me know how many gallons of water each person on Earth could expect to have for daily use if, theoretically our planet's available fresh water was parsed equally and sustainably among 7.3 billion people. That is the goal I seek.
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