How much water is actually used by a person in one year?

Have you ever wondered how much water a person uses by just taking one shower a day, on average, in a given year?  It may have never really crossed your mind, unless you live in an area under water restrictions due to the ever-decreasing water supply.  

The average shower lasts 10-15 minutes and the average shower uses 2 gallons of water a minute.  Now, most low-flow showerheads have restrictors installed by the manufacturers to restrict the flow, but by doing so, you get a low pressure shower experience at best.  If we are honest with ourselves, we probably have tried one of these showerheads in the past and yanked out the restrictor because we couldn't stand the lack of pressure while taking a shower.  Let's say we are back to using the shower without the restrictor plate and are getting our good-pressure shower, but now consuming 2.5 gallons of water per minute.  Doing some math, that shower used anywhere from 25 to 37.5 gallons of water. 

So what's the big deal.  That's not a lot of water, right?  Well, let's keep doing the math.  The average household size is 3 persons, so let's just take those numbers and multiply by 3 and assume we only take one shower a day (I'm not going to pick on those who take more than one a day because sometimes a person has to take more than one).  We can see that the average household will use 75 to 112 gallons of water per day just in taking a shower.

Come on, that's still not a lot of water in the overall scheme.  You're wearing me out here!  Well, bear with me just a bit longer and it'll start revealing itself.  Let's say our average household takes a shower every day, 365 days of the year (and we won't count the two showers taken every once in a while).  Doing some more math again, we can now see that our average household will use 27,375 to 41,062 gallons of water a year.  Now, those numbers are getting some commas in them. 

Hmmmmm, that's a decent amount of water used in a year, you say. Never really thought about it honestly, you say.  But what can I do to reduce water consumption?  I'm not watering my lawn but once a week, not washing my car every week....heck the dog doesn't even get a bath but twice a year now!  I don't see where I can do anything more. 

Let me ask you this question.  What if you were able to save 1 gallon of water for every minute you and your family were in the shower?  Each day your family could save 45 to 67.5 gallons of water.  Each year your family could save 10,950 to 16,425 gallons of water. 

That's a 40% water savings each year.  Think about how much money that would save your household?  Now keep going with the math and look at how many people live in your neighborhood, your city, your state.  Think if all these people saved something as simple as 1 gallon of water per minute during their shower.  

Let's do our large part in conserving this most precious commodity, ensuring future generations the same opportunity to water as we've had.  

If you want do learn more, check out the EcoJetStream! 

Save Water, Save Money, Save the World!