How much water do you use in a day?

[RICHFL]

If you think your family is ready for SHTF - take a week and have them take showers using the 2.5 gallon drip hose on a water bag. See how long before they bitch that they cannot get their hair washed with so little water. (My answer is cut it short).

They do not understand that you get wet, stop the flow of water, soap up and then use most of your water to rinse off. I did this last year to prove a point to them just how much water we waste. It took a week but by the end they could do all their bathing using less then 2.5 gallons and in less then 5 minutes!

[Applejack]

We use about 200 gals a day for everything with the amount of canning we have been doing and less in the winter months. We have a well for watering the garden so this helps alot.
As for graywater. i use it to mix up insect killer. But you can't use a detergent such as dawn detergent. it can be ivory or dove dishwashing detergent as these two are soap and not detergent. mix 16 oz of graywater, 16oz 70% alcohol and 2 tsp. soap. This will kill the insects but you have to spray on the insects to kill them.
AJ

[Chefsimms]

We use and waste way too much!!! I too will look at our meter. The girls will all bathe together, but my son (13) likes to take his shower once or twice a day. Long ones, must be nice? I have been discussing a timer for the bathroom. We only have 1 for the 6 of us. Might help cut down on water. I do not have a dishwasher, so I think I actually use more water hand washing..

Does anyone save and reuse their "gray water"? is it grey or gray?? lol

I use the gray water from my kitchen and landrey room, it it used to water the back yard. I do not have a dish washer either. It is hard to belive how much water we use every day...

[ZAGran]

Last month I used 1,170 gal of water. Would have been less but had a leaky toilet. It's fixed now. When the kids visit it goes up.

[Scottishblacksmith]

If one chose to, you could save on water in the shower by shutting off the water while soaping up... lathering hair, one could save ALOT of water.

[Echo2]

Suscide...that's what that would be...

[Iron mike]

I am defiantly not brave enough to shut the wifes hot water off good God no

[Echo2]

My kids....if in the shower for more than 14 mins....the hot water gets shut off.

I'm generally a 5 min shower guy....the Mrs is another story....:)

[Iron mike]

Way to much I promise that 4 girls in the house and the 6 yr old takes some serious Hollywood showers if she was on the boat the we would be in some deep sh** around here but I have had the talk with them and we are trying to do the timer thing but being in base housing where all these things are seemingly free and plentiful its hard to get it across to them to conserve I fear when I get out it is going to be an uphill battle to get off grid but I think their will be some good life lessons along the way any suggestions?

[mountain1]

wow, you guys use ALOT of water. were off grid with our only water being rain/snowmelt stored in tanks and buckets, so every drop is conserved around here.
shower: we use one of those pump/pressurized weed sprayers or in the summer a solar shower bag. they both use around 2gal. -yes 2gal-.
the wife takes one everyday. i take one every few days, or when she makes me...;)

coffee/tea: i drink around 5-6 cups per day of coffee. she drinks around 2 cups of tea. so, less than 1/2 gal.

drinking water: generally around 1-1 1/2 gal per day. sometimes less. especially in the winter

dog/chicken water: in summer, a couple gal per day. much less in winter (the chickens eat alot of snow during winter (we currently have around 23 or so) we also have two beagles, so they drink much more in the summer.

toilet: none, we have an outhouse

cooking: that obviously depends on what were cooking. sometimes none. if i boil something then well use some water. all the 'waste cooking' water from the kitchen goes to the chickens or is used to make cooking broth. so not much water is really used for cooking.

dishes: we do dishes maybe once a week or so (being off grid, we reuse dishes alot between washes). so the dishes take a couple gal per week.

we use very little water. it's no big deal to us, we learned years ago how to conserve our water. we have never once ran out or have had to go to a creek to get some. you'd be surprised how much rain water a fellow can gather...
i'm sure that i have left something out. if i think of it i'll edit and add it to the list.

[TX318]

Here in TEXAS we go through so much water because it is so hot !!!

[InjOnly]

Shower heads have had 2.5 gpm restrictors since the early 90s. These can be removed in most cases but the average person takes a ten to twelve minute shower and uses 25 to 30 gals of water.
Those who take baths instead of showering double that amount of water.
For anyone considering harvesting gray water, showers are ideal.
Avoid lavatories, dishwashers, and especially kitchen sinks. The amount of food debris takes way too much filtering in most cases.

[Jerry D Young]

15 minute shower at 4 gal/min. Takes me a bit longer than some because of my disabilities.

[maric]

Thats an interesting point. We have a well, so it's harder to tell water usage when you're not having to pay the utility bill. We all take pretty short showers (well maybe not the daughter, but we're working on that) but we drink lots of tea and coffee, run laundry and dishes, and water livestock. We don't save our gray water-I'm not sure what to do with it. I can't water the garden with it-wouldn't the soap affect it? We're looking into getting rainbarrels. That will help.

hey! Ive been reading this book, The Urban Homestead, and I have picked up quite a few helpful tips about Greywater..Its a good book overall, I think!
I have also googles greywater and found some useful tips.. some say dishwater is safe for plants.. Im still looking into it? Anyone else know, help me out! :)

[Echo2]

you use more than a 55 gallon drum when you shower?