Typical water usage?

In groups, it is a social thing to keep certain comments away from the ears of men.

Male and female bladders are about the same size, close to a quart. But a certain subset uses only a tiny portion of that storage volume.

 

Shawn: not giving up... not even close. if i had, i would not be driving a bleeding edge EV or a Pri for that matter. i drive both to provide examples, information, options, etc. i dont preach green transportation or anything else but if you ask me, dont expect a short answer cause i will basically talk to ya about my EV or my Pri until you are pretty much tired of hearing my voice.

and like the major uphill battles EV's (a lot of it deservedly so) are experiencing due to

1) lack of education
2) ignorance as to the true cost to society, possible ramifications, etc.

our infrastructure has the exact same things against it. i did not make the post to say i give up, i did it more to be yelling from the rafters that "HEY, we got a problem, a big one, one that we have to sacrifice a lot to fix and we better start getting our neighbors onboard with this and get going before its too late!"

once again, just to get to a bare minimal acceptable level, we need to spend 2.2 trillion over the next 5 years (this is a low ball figure and realistically we are looking at possibly more than double that... as you know, infrastructure issues can only be guessed... its not un common to dig up a whole host of unknown problems while fixing the basics)

well that is a lot of money, money that has to be approved with a million local bonds and levies. these are the same things placed on ballots around the country every year that has an average passing rate of around 15%. ya, thats right, 6 of 7 badly needed improvements recommended by your local governments fail to get any money and the biggest reason is simply we as a people have our heads up our asses.

we havent a clue as to how fast that runaway freight train is bearing down on us. 25% of bridges are in DESPERATE need of work. ya 1 in 4. if you had saw what i saw, i quite honestly not sure i want to go anywhere, especially if i have to drive.

we also have another issue. major repair bills for our nation's freeways. most will have to undergo at the very least basic rebuilding in the next 5 to 15 years. that is a 5 trillion dollar project.

this show if you have not seen it, i cant even begin to tell you how important it is to see it. now sure, its all slanted one way. the show cherry-picks the worst of the worst as examples and provides scenarios as to what can happen and no doubt they are probably looking at near worst case scenarios. but at the same time, some are not all that far-fetched.

California's water supply is controlled by a set of levies situated in lower lying areas above the bay area. levies route water from mountains rivers and streams thru low elevation farm lands and all eventually drain into a huge reservoir lake that feeds the entire Southern Ca aqueduct system. parts of this system runs thru land that is significantly below the tide levels of the San Francisco Bay and lies right in the middle of several fault lines. one scenario has an Earthquake hitting the areas, destroying a few levies and allowing salt water into the system to contaminate the system... now the large reservoir has gates that can be shut, but they estimate such a catastrophe besides destroying a large part of the farmland surrounding the area, would take a minimum 2 to 3 years to rebuild the levies and pump out the sea water.

during this time, the entire water supply for So. Cal, would be exhausted and 20 million people would basically run dry in less than a year. estimated cost to fix that issue alone before the Earthquake? dont know. the scale of the repair is several times larger than the entire state budget, so no one even tried to figure it out since they would not even consider doing it. the cost should suck an Earthquake happen? several Trillion dollars, most likely emergency government aid.

i would like to happen is that thousands read this post, go and see this show and then start grass roots movement in every little nook and cranny in the country to get the gears greased up and turning

 

Exactly. I think we're in agreement.
I also agree with this:

 

Y'all know that when the water supply dries up, those who ignored the warnings are going do a Katrina and cry WHY?!?!?!

 

Possibly the only advantage I see to being married. But what do I know? I'm happily single

I've had girlfriends yell from the bathroom

"Jay! Where do you keep the toilet paper?!"

"That roll was almost full this morning!"

"It's empty!"

"Use the cardboard tube then!"

[that lack of tact on my part may be why I'm still happily single]

"I'm not leaving this bathroom until I can find a spare roll!"

"Towel closet in the bathroom!"

Silence for 5 minutes. I naturally assume she croaked in there

"Everything ok?!"

FLUSH

Yeah, I don't get it. I'm not stingy with using tp, but most women use way more

Wanna bet? Unless something happens to them, Joe Q Public is ignorant, arrogant, and dumb as a box of rocks

Easy there, Sparky. I like women with butts

Me too. Oddly enough, mention to the average American or Canadian you use this little thing to hose off your butt after using the toilet, they look at you as if you just stepped out of a flying saucer

You can count on me to be anti-social then!

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but have over a decade of bitter career experience that proves - at least to me anyway - your goal is unachievable.

It's like Don Quixote, after awhile the struggle becomes pointless

Sure they will. [Sarcasm Mode = ON] So? This is human nature at its finest [Sarcasm Mode = OFF]

 

actually Jay, what it boils down to, is either spend a ton of money to prepare, or wait for the disaster, hope the human cost is "acceptable" and then hold hand out, wait for Uncle Sam to fill it...

that way, can use state budget for important things like new gazebo for the hot tub

 

Dave

I completely agree with you. Unfortunately, Joe Q Public does not, and the average corrupt lazy shyster politician only cares about the absolute lowest common denominator

Not trying to depress you or anything lke that, just stating what I believe to be the facts

 

What is an HCF? Is it the same as a CCF (100 cu. ft.)?

 

HCF is indeed 100 cubc feet, and that is how the local city indicats usage. 100 cf = about 748 gallons.

 

ok got water bill... 500 something cu feet. (forget exact total) 29 billing days, 153 gallons per day at 7.8 gallons per cu feet

 

Sounds like a member of your household is taking a lot of long showers

 

Just got my water bill too. 32 CCF over a 62 day billing period. That's 23,936 USG over 62 days or 386 USG per day, for just 2 retired people living in the same house we have lived in for the past 43 years (apart from 2 spent on Nairobi, Kenya).

Yes, I know, it outrageous, and it shocked me when I started to look into this issue. So I am now on a major water conservation kick, over and above the one started during our last drought (1987-89), when I eliminated our front lawn.

As I mentioned, we're a small family of empty-nesters, living in a 1700 sq. ft. house without lawns, front or back. My sprinklers are timer-set for 5-minute runs at 6 am and 6 pm, originally set at 3 times a week, now down to 2 times/week. Our toilets are 1.6 GPF in 2 bathrooms: now following the "yellow until mellow" routine. We take 2 showers/day, with a recently installed 1.5 GPM shower-head, provided free from Golden State Water Co. our supplier. We do 1 dishwasher run per week, my wife runs a wash load (top loading m/c) about every 5-6 days. No pool, but we recently installed a small recycling water-fall in the back yard, which requires refilling due to evaporation periodically.

GSW have recently invoked austerity measures to save on water use, based on the historic billing period averages from 2004 - 2006 (3 years), with financial penalties for amounts above your historical allocation. Our allocation for the next billing period (Aug - Sep, 62 days) is 30 CCF. That's 48 cu. ft. a day, or 362 USG/day. According to the city of Cypress, the average single-family residence uses 11.9 CCF or 8900 USG of water per month; so obviously, I have work to do!

P.S. There are no leaks in our system - just checked the water meter at the curb, and it's stationary.

 

That is what puzzles me too, Shawn.

Good suggestion on the sprinklers though. I will check the street-side meter before they go on tonight at 6 pm, and get a reading on the water consumption for that cycle.

 

OUCH!

My 2-person household used 31 CCF for all of 2008. That includes garden drip irrigation. We were away about two months total, not during irrigation season. We run the dishwasher (EnergyStar, ~5 gallons) nearly every other day, and at least three loads of laundry per week through a front loader. Typically 3 showers per day for the household.

I'd start with quantifying indoor vs outdoor use. Read the meter every day for a while, reading the sweep needle down to 0.0001 CCF, and compare usage on sprinkler vs. non-sprinkler days.

I also used the meter to measure the toilet flush volume. Back in our 66 CCF/year era, the old 3.5 gpf toilets were using much more than that due to cheap replacement parts. The new 1.6 GPF units are taking closer to 1.5 gpf. If your indoor usage is still large, I'd suggest using the meter to measure the washer and dishwasher usage also.

If all these are out still out of whack, use a known bucket to check the meter calibration. But I'd think that a worn-out meter would most likely read low, not high.

 

All excellent suggestions.

Checking my meter (on a 5/8" dia. line) it reads to the nearest 0.01 cubic ft of water, although the water company rounds out the reading to the nearest 100 cu ft (1CCF). The reading now is 2629.3921 cu ft. Just checked by flushing one toilet, reading is now 2629.3940. So 1 flush = 0.19 cu ft x 7.48 = 1.42 USG. Great!

Anyway, I'll do the first sprinkler cycle in less than an hour!

 

We've been historically using approximately 50 gallons/day/person on average. We've implemented most we can to diminish our use to this level in terms of appliance purchases, rain barrels, etc. but more can be saved if the water was shut off while brushing teeth and not warming the shower water, etc.

 

That absolves both that toilet and the meter.

My first bet would be some gross leak in the sprinkler system. But if it is set to run only 5 minutes at a time, 4 times per week, it would have to be a very gross leak to account for your usage. My service, with a 1" meter (rated for 50 gpm), about 75 psi, and a fairly long line (limiting flow to 30-some gpm), cannot carry that much water even if the shutoff valve in my garage is cleanly sheared off. Your 5/8" meter is rated for only 20 gpm, but can physically carry much more if the pressure is good and your total line length is short.