70 gallons a day

By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor+

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 3, 2000

Each of us uses just under 70 gallons of water indoors every day. Concern about water consumption increases as we head into the sixth month of below-average rainfall. Just 3.11 inches of rain have fallen since January, compared with an average 11 inches. As we wait for the summer rains to start, forest fires burn around the state; lawns are brown; and on a drought index of 0 to 800, Pinellas County registers an average of 748, Citrus County 746, the driest in Florida.

Where do those 70 gallons of water go every day? In these dry times, how can we cut back? Here's the story, gallon by gallon.

In the kitchen

Each of us uses 10.9 gallons of water per day at the kitchen and bathroom faucet. That's 15.7 percent of the daily load, the fourth largest category of daily home water use.

1. Washing dishes by hand, with water running at 3 to 5 gallons per minute, can use up far more water than running the dishwasher, which uses about 15 gallons. Dishwashing represents only 1.4 percent of daily water usage. Older dishwashers use 12 to 17 gallons of water per load (still less than washing by hand, which can use 30 to 50 gallons for 10 minutes of washing; newer models may use as little as 4 to 9 gallons. To cut back: Use the dishwasher, but wait until you have a full load. Don't prewash or rinse the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher. If you're in the market for a new dishwasher, look for one with several different cycles so you can choose the cycle that matches your cleaning needs.

At the sink, cleaning vegetables under running water uses 3 to 5 gallons per minute. To cut back: Fill a bowl or pan with water to rinse vegetables..

Other savings at the faucet:

2. Use a garbage can for food scraps rather than the garbage disposer, which requires 3 to 5 gallons per minute of water to operate.

Use an aerator on kitchen and bathroom faucets to reduce indoor water use by as much as 4 percent.

Don't let the water run until it's cool enough to drink. Keep a bottle of water in the refrigerator.

If you run water while waiting for it to get hot, don't let it run down the drain. Save it in a bucket, cooking pot or dishpan for watering plants, cooking or cleaning.

In the garden: You do the math

3. Single-family households in the Tampa Bay area with automatic sprinkler systems use an average of 2,036 gallons of water per irrigation, according to studies by Tampa Bay Water.

Thirty percent of that water is wasted due to inefficiency -- it's watering the sidewalk, or it's soaking one part of the lawn and missing another, said Dave Bracciano, resource conservation coordinator.

Gardeners share water-saving tips Water saving clicks

About 30 percent of all homes in this area have automatic sprinkler-systems, operating about 60 times a year on average when watering restrictions are not in place. That translates to 122,160 gallons of water per year sprinkled on each lawn and garden that uses an automatic-sprinkler system.

Households use an average of just less than 70 gallons of water per person per day inside the home. Figuring a household of 2.5 people, that's 175 gallons a day inside the house plus 335 gallons per day outside, for a total of 510 gallons per household per day.

It costs homeowners $4 to $10 each time the irrigation system comes on (sewer and water rates differ throughout the district). Ask if there are ways to spend more wisely: on plants that require less water, for example; on an irrigation system with different zones for rotor heads and spray heads; on repairing broken or misdirected heads; or on a multiprogrammable irrigation controller so that, when current restrictions are lifted, you can water grass and shrubs on separate schedules.

Washing clothes:

4. Clothes washers can use up to 35 gallons of water per load. Laundry is the second-largest home water-guzzler, swallowing 21.7 percent of the daily water allocation. To cut back: Wait until you have a full load. If you're thinking of buying a new washer, look for front-loading energy-efficient models that use up to 30 percent less water and 40 to 50 percent less energy.

Bathroom

5. Brushing teeth/shaving: Faucets typically use 3 to 5 gallons of water per minute. To cut back: Turn off the water! Fill the sink with a small amount of water to rinse your razor while you shave. Install a faucet aerator to decrease the flow of water

6. Showers: A typical shower uses 11.6 gallons of water. That makes it the third largest consumer of water each day, at 16.8 percent. Showering is also the second highest use of energy in the home for heating. To cut back: Install a showerhead that limits water flow to 2.5 gallons per minute; all showerheads on the market today are flow-restricted. Take shorter showers.

7. Toilets: Flushing the toilet is the largest single use of residential water: 18.5 gallons per person per day, or 26.7 percent of water usage. People typically flush five times a day. Older toilets use between 3.5 and 7 gallons per flush. Low-flow toilets use only 1.6 gallons. To cut back: Flush less frequently; don't use the toilet as a wastebasket for cigarette butts, facial tissue, insects, etc. In larger-capacity toilets, install a "toilet tank bank" or "toilet tummy," a heavy plastic bag filled with water to displace a gallon of water and save a gallon per flush. Replace old toilets with new low-flow models; some cities and counties offer rebate programs as incentives to homeowners.

Other drips and drops:

Toilets, clothes washers, showers and faucets together use an average of 56 gallons per person per day. The rest of our daily water intake, 13.3 gallons, is consumed by tub baths, dishwashers, leaks and other domestic uses such as cleaning.

If your faucet drips at a rate of one gallon per second, you'll waste 2,700 gallons a year, Swiftmud says. Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter does not read exactly the same, there's a leak somewhere. To cut back: Repair those dripping faucets and leaks! Check for toilet tank leaks by adding food coloring to the tank. If the toilet is leaking, color will appear in the toilet bowl within 30 minutes. Check the toilet for worn, corroded or bent parts.

Source: Tampa Bay Water; American Water Works Association; Swiftmud. Figures for residential usage represent gallons per person, per day, in a single-family home.

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