Low Impact Living: A Thirsty Nation (part 2)
Editor’s note: On Monday, we published the first part of Low Impact Living’s report on American water use at sustainablog. Today’s second part takes a look at how we tend to use water excessively in our own homes. Keep an eye out for part 3, which will give you tips for reducing your water consumption, or visit LIL for the original publication of the report.
Key Causes of Excessive Water Use
There are many sources of water waste across all sectors of the economy. But, as homeowners and consumers, which ones do we have the most control over? Low Impact Living suggests you consider the following ideas when thinking about lowering your water use.
Direct Household Water Use
The typical household with three members uses over 300 gallons of water per day, both inside and outside. If you live in a warm climate where lawn irrigation is needed, then typically this is your single biggest source of waste – most lawns are over-watered, irrigated with inefficient equipment, and planted with plants not suitable to the local climate.
Inside, toilets, clothes washers and showers are the largest water users, representing 19, 15 and 12 gallons per person per day respectively (see chart to the right). There are huge inefficiencies here as well, especially in older homes. New appliances and plumbing fixtures can often shave 50% off of your water use.
All told, an average water-conserving home could cut the 300 gallon average above to less than 150 gallons with no sacrifice in comfort or performance. Specific things you can do to achieve these savings are listed below.
Indirect Water Use
In addition to the water that you use directly, you also consume water via the products and services that you buy.
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The largest single source of indirect water use is through the generation of electric power. Electric power plants employ water to generate steam and for cooling. Per capita water use due to power generation is a whopping 480 gallons per day in the US. This varies greatly by locality. In states using hydroelectric power plants or seawater-cooled plants, fresh water use can be less than one gallon of water per kilowatt-hour of power generated (Idaho, Oregon and California are among these). In other states with no hydro resources and only fresh water available, the use can be very high – Tennessee, Nebraska and Wisconsin power plants use on average over 30 gallons of water per kilowatt-hour of power generated.
Another indirect water use is the food and beverages that we consume. When you consider the entire lifecycle of a food product, from farm to dinner table, many foods require huge amounts of water to produce. Most meats (beef being worst), heavily processed foods, and some vegetables that grow in wet conditions use tremendous amounts of water. Some examples are provided below (representing global averages).
I didn’t know about inside toilets as an important water drain. I see now why that makes sense. Also I had a valve under bathroom sink that dripped and fortunately I caught that before going away for a weekend. Thanks for a very interesting blog.
Deb
[...] focuses on steps you can take to conserve water around the home. Make sure to check out the previous two posts in this series on water use and conservation, or take a look at the whole report on Low [...]
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