80 litres a day - does this sound right?

jpr_74

I have just got a letter from Southern Water giving me info on my water use since I had a water meter fitted in September 2011. Apparently, I am using 80 litres per day......

Now I am a single bloke working full time and I only stay at my place 3/4 nights per week as I stay at my girlfriends place over the whole of the weekend from Saturday and not home again until Monday evening.

If I visualise 80 litres as 2l bottles, this seems such a massive amount. I called Southern Water and they said "oh this is average and to check if you have a leak". Now I work in the energy industry and wanted some more technical help and to be honest the girl only just reeled off what was on my bill and told me nothing new as I wanted a little more help than what I ended up with!

Can anyone else give me any comparisons of what they use? Or am I missing something here?

Cardew

The average consumption in UK is approx 150 litres a day(55 cubic metres a year) per person.

So given your pattern of use, 80 litres is about right.

Flushing toilets and washing machine/dishwasher use a large amount of water.

LittleMissAspie

80 litres is only a half-filled bath, it's not a massive amount.

HappyMJ

jpr_74 wrote: »

I have just got a letter from Southern Water giving me info on my water use since I had a water meter fitted in September 2011. Apparently, I am using 80 litres per day......

Now I am a single bloke working full time and I only stay at my place 3/4 nights per week as I stay at my girlfriends place over the whole of the weekend from Saturday and not home again until Monday evening.

If I visualise 80 litres as 2l bottles, this seems such a massive amount. I called Southern Water and they said "oh this is average and to check if you have a leak". Now I work in the energy industry and wanted some more technical help and to be honest the girl only just reeled off what was on my bill and told me nothing new as I wanted a little more help than what I ended up with!

Can anyone else give me any comparisons of what they use? Or am I missing something here?

I'd say that is about right. Baths, showers, clothes washing, dishwashing, toilets. All adds up. Just because you are away doesn't mean the clothes won't be washed another day. It's fairly easy to reduce individual usage down to around 100 litres per day by having shallow baths, short showers, flushing toilet solids only, full washing machines, hand washing dishes twice a week with one tub of water and no rinsing, no outside water usage for lawn or car washing. Some people can even get it much lower with a lot more effort.

You would need to keep a water diary for an accurate answer. Takes a bit of effort but try calculating the water use per minute in the shower then multiply it by your shower length. Try figuring out if you have a low flush toilet or an older model. Add it all up and you will be suprised just how much we get through.

brewerdave

First four weeks after we had a meter fitted we made no efforts to reduce usage to give us a "steer" on expected usage; we used 8000 litres which approximates to 143 litres each per day, with one working and the other at home.
Second four weeks we are attempting to reduce usage to see how much difference it makes - so far, we are averaging ~ 85 litres per day each, but of course,we haven't had to do any watering!!!

SailorSam

The amount of water you drink is probably going to be very small, so if you're their alone you should measure or estimate how much the loo holds and how often you use the washing machine. Do you have a power shower, they use a lot.