Indoor Water Conservation
Water usage varies from person to person and community to community but on average Americans use 183 gallons of water a day for cooking, washing, flushing, and watering purposes. The average family turns on the tap between 70 and 100 times daily. About 74% of home water usage is in the bathroom, about 21% is for laundry and cleaning, and about 5% is in the kitchen.
- Keep showers down to five minutes or less. This will save 75 gallons of water a week per person. Showering and bathing is one of the largest users (27%) of water domestically.
- Repair all leaky faucets, fixtures, and pipes both inside and outside the home to save up to 150 gallons of water per week, per leak. (Read your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the meter doesn't read exactly the same, there is a leak.)
- Save 35 gallons of water a week per person by simply not letting the water run while brushing your teeth.
- Never use the toilet as a wastebasket. Flushing the toilet requires 2 to 7 gallons of water.
- A leaky toilet can waste more than 20,000 gallons of water a year. Try the toilet leak test: Take the lid off your toilet tank and drop a couple of food coloring drops into the tank. Wait ten minutes. If you have a leak, the bowl will change colors. It may be a bad flapper that can be replaced inexpensively.
- Running the dishwasher only when you have a full load will save 30 gallons of water a week. It takes 12 to 20 gallons of water to run an automatic dishwasher for one cycle.
- Don't wash less than a full load of laundry. This can save as much as 100 gallons of water a week. The average clothes washer uses about 50 gallons of water per load.
- Instead of running the faucet to get a cold drink, keep a container of water in the refrigerator. This tip saves from 2 to 5 gallons of water a week.
- Rinse vegetables and fruit in a sink or pan filled with water instead of under running water.
- Install aerators in faucets and flow restrictors in showerheads.
