water use in 2008

In 2008, we averaged less than 40 gallons per day or just under 10 gallons per person per day. I think it is probably the lowest water usage in the whole utility district. We have a 3,200 sq ft home with four people in it and a small garden, where we grow vegetables. It rains very little in California, and not at all during the summer.

In reality we have a two season climate. In winter it rains -sometimes quite hard- and in summer it is dry. In winter we average close to 20 gallons for the entire household, while in summer we use slightly more than 45 a day. The summer number is higher due to our small vegetable garden and because we do not have access to clean rain water for washing.

How do we do it? Simple, but not exactly elegant. We use grey water for everything except cooking and (brief) showers. It works. It isn't exactly what people living in the 21 st century have in mind, but it isn't entirely ominous either. We also collect rainwater (automatically) using rain barrels. One average storm can yield as much as 300 gallons of water, and we aren't even collecting all of it.

We do all that with what is probably one of the most water-wasteful washing machines in the country. It gobbles up almost 45 gallons to do a load. It is an old top loader. I know it uses as much because I collect the grey water and I need a full size rain barrel to do it. The water looks pretty grey so I guess it is appropriately called grey water. One can use it to flush toilets. It is a bit primitive and not something most Americans could live with but it works quite well.

Above all, what our experience shows is that one can easily live a comfortable life-style using very little water and very little energy. There is no need to ditch modern amenities to do so. If one is aversive towards using buckets to flush the toilet, then it would be rather easy to install an automated system to fill the tank with either rain water or grey water. The first is straightforward and our rain water is very high quality (esp. after the first couple of storms clean the roof) so it could go in as is. The grey water from the washer would probably require a filter of some sort to get rid of particulate matter. I eventually plan to install such a system but for now, things work fine as is.