Water & Households

When most people want fresh, clean water, all they have to do is turn on a faucet. On average, direct indoor water use (water from the tap, toilet, dishwasher, etc.) adds up to about 500 liters per household per day.

These uses include a number of defined purposes (or water end uses) such as flushing toilets, washing clothes and dishes, showering and bathing, drinking, food preparation, watering lawns and gardens, and maintaining swimming pools. Some of these end uses are detectable (and measurable) while others are more difficult to measure.

The water consumption per inhabitant variates all over the world, for instance an American uses in average 500 liters a day, a western European 150 liters and an African only 50 liters a day. Even if these differences tend to decrease with the time no one is equal in the water uses. Another difference is a consequence of the people's way of living, in the countryside people use less water than in the city, with the exception of agriculture of course.


American families use on average 500 liters of Water Per Day
You wake up in the morning, take a shower, brush your teeth, grab a cup of coffee, and head out for the day. Water is an important part of our daily lives and we use it for a wide variety of purposes, but do we really understand how much we use?

  • The average American family uses more than 500 liters of water per day at home. Roughly 70 percent of this use occurs indoors.

  • Outdoor water use accounts for 30 percent of household use yet can be much higher in drier parts of the country and in more water-intensive landscapes.

  • On average, 144 liters of freshwater per person per day is supplied for household consumption in Europe. This is almost three times the water requirement established for basic human needs.


Uses of water inside the Home

Bathroom

As many reports show, the most water consumption in a house happens in the bathroom. Collectively, your bathroom habits may account for almost 60 percent of all indoor water use. In the Netherlands, consumption rates are as follow;

  • Shower - 41%: In an average home, showering is a big water consumer. The average shower uses 59.7 liter and lasts for 7.7 minutes at average flow rate of 7.9 liters per minute. On average, each individual takes 4.4 showers and 1.3 baths each week. Also, people generally spend seven-and-a-half minutes in the shower. 87% of people do not exceed ten minutes on their daily shower.

  • Toilet - 29%: On average, toilets are flushed 5 times a day per person and represent the single highest use of water in the average home. Toilet flushing makes up about 24% of overall household water consumption. Just one toilet flush can use three or more liters of water, and with six to eight flushes, you could use up to 60 liters of water daily.

  • Washing Machine - 12%: Washing laundry is a significant use of water in the average home; accounting for 12% of the average indoor use. The average size family washes 5.4 loads of laundry each week. Each load uses on average 111 liters of water.

  • Faucet - 4%

  • Bath - 3%: In addition to showering, baths were recorded in 47 percent of the sampled households in which 2.7 baths were taken each week (or, on average, 1.3 per week across all sampled households). Each bath uses on average 76.5 liters of water.

Kitchen

  • Dishwasher- 2%: Dishes can be washed by hand in a sink or in an automatic dishwasher, which was present in 84 percent of the end use study homes. The average family washes approximately 1.8 dishwasher loads each week.

  • Food Preparation - 1%

 


Uses of Water Outside the Home

The outdoor residential water use includes landscape irrigation, filling and back washing swimming pools, water used through outdoor faucets (hose bibs) for washing pavement and cars, and other outdoor uses. Some of the most consuming are;

  • Lawn Care

On a global level, lawns currently occupy land space equivalent to England and Spain combined. Lawns also currently require an enormous amount of water—in arid regions, lawns account for a shocking 75 percent of water consumption.

  • Swimming Pools

Swimming pools are major outdoor water users. The average pool takes about 70.000 liters of water to fill (find out how to calculate pool volumes) and an uncovered pool can lose thousands of liters a month from evaporation in arid areas. Over the course of a year, that could add up to 110.000 liters (and a high water bill) if it is refilled each year.

  • Car Washes

Washing a car can help preserve its life, but it takes a lot of water – about 400 liters, on average – to get a car clean if it’s washed at home with a hose. In addition, the accumulated dirt and grease that comes off a car goes into gutters and can end up in local waterways.

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You want to know what is your water footprint? You can use this water calculator; Click here to find out.  



Solutions

When it comes to residential water consumption, each of us have the power to create small everyday changes, in order to consume less. Some of the things we can do to save water in our homes are;

Saving Water with Water-Efficient Toilets, Shower heads 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. Nowadays, you have the option to choose so many different water-saving appliances. 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.

Never before, bathroom fixtures and appliances like toilets, shower heads and faucets are designed to be more water-efficient than older models and can save hundreds of liters a month. For example, older toilets use up to six liters per flush, whereas low-flow toilets (or any toilet manufactured after 1994) use 1.6 liters or less. Likewise, older shower heads flow well over the federal limit of 10 liters per minute, while low-flow models can flow no higher than 9 liters 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 20.000 liters 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.

Few more quick tips:

  • Turn off the tap while brushing your teeth.

Water comes out of the average faucet at 10 liters per minute. Don’t let all that water go down the drain while you brush! Turn off the faucet after you wet your brush, and leave it off until it’s time to rinse.

  • Turn off the tap while washing your hands.

Do you need the water to run while you’re scrubbing your hands? Save a few laters of water and turn the faucet off after you wet your hands until you need to rinse.

  • Head to the car wash.

If you feel compelled to wash your car, take it to a car wash that recycles the water, rather than washing at home with the hose.

  • Cut your showers short.

Older shower heads can use as much as 23 liters of water per minute. Speed things up in the shower for some serious water savings.

  • Don’t run the dishwasher or washing machine until it’s full.

Forbes 30under30 Entrepreneur, Hamza Farrukh, and his team at Bondh E Shams (The Solar Water Project) have developed a cost-effective and transportable solution for the global water crisis. Their innovation, the OASIS BOX (Off-Grid Aqua Solar Integration System) provides 25 years of safe water to 2,000 people in just $10,000.

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