Watch Your Water Ways!
Understanding where and how much water we use is the first step in beginning to conserve one of our most precious resources. This simple home water check-up will allow you to track your household consumption, both indoors and outdoors. After calculating your water use patterns, you can begin conserving in ways that work best with your lifestyle.
Thanks for taking the time to become more familiar with your household water use. With this knowledge you should be able to start conserving water around your home. Enter information into the form below and press the "Calculate" button to calculate your daily, monthly, and yearly water use in gallons. You do not need to answer questions if they don't apply. 'Per capita' is another way of saying 'per person'. |
| GENERAL QUESTIONS |
| 1. Total number of people in your household. (Required) |
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| INDOOR WATER USE |
| BATHROOM |
| 1. How many showers are taken each day in your household? |
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2. What is the average length (in minutes) of each shower.
Enter 6.3 if you are unsure. |
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3. What is the flow rate (gallons per minute) of your showerhead?
Usually printed on it, or enter 5 for standard showerhead; 2 for low flow.
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| 4. Total number of baths taken each week by members of your household. |
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| TOILETS |
1. Average number of times each person flushes a toilet in your house per day.
Enter 5.1 if you are unsure. |
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2. How many gallons does your toilet use per flush?
Enter 4.25 if you have a standard toilet; 1.6 if your toilet was installed since 1994; 1.28 if it is WaterSense certified. |
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| FAUCETS |
| 1. How many times each day does each household member use faucets to shave, brush teeth, wash hands and face? |
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| 2. How many minutes does the water run during each use? |
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| WASHING DISHES |
| 1. How many times are dishes washed by hand each day? |
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| 2. How many minutes does the water run during each wash? |
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| 3. If you have a dishwasher, how many times is it used each week? |
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| 4. How many gallons per load are used by your dishwasher? The average machine uses 10 gallons; the average for an EnergyStar dishwasher is 6. |
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| LAUNDRY |
| 1. How many loads of laundry are done by members of your household each week. |
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| 2. How many gallons per load are used by your washing machine? The average machine uses 42 gallons; the average EnergyStar model uses 24. |
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| OUTDOOR WATER USE |
| LAWN WATERING & OTHER USES |
| 1. How many times is your lawn watered each week? |
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| 2. How many minutes is the lawn watered per watering? |
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| 3. How many times are your vegetable or landscape plant beds watered each week (hose or standard irrigation system)? |
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| 4. How many minutes total is water applied to the vegetable or landscape beds per watering? |
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| 5. How many times are your plant beds watered with micro-irrigation each week? (Micro-irrigation encompasses forms such as drip, subsurface, and bubbler. It is 25-75% more efficient than standard irrigation.) |
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| 6. How many minutes total is water applied through micro-irrigation per watering? |
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| 7. Water is also used outdoors to wash cars, fill pools, rinse outdoor furniture and clean equipment. Estimate the average number of minutes water is used outdoors for purposes other than watering each week. |
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Press the Calculate button to compute your overall water use.
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