Activity 2.2.1 - My daily water use

 SAWS Bill Water Usage Totals

August - 4489 gallons

July - 5985 gallons

June - 5985 gallons

16459 gallons total 

5486 average gallons per month

1371 average gallons per person per month 

45 gallons per person per day 


“Your Water Footprint” 

Water Footprint Calculator

https://www.watercalculator.org/wfc2/complete/

Personal: 1,391 Gallons/Day

Household: 5,565Gallons/Day

US Average: 1,802 Gallons/Day

Per day per person: 46 gallons


“Water Use Calculator” 

Southwest Florida Water Use Management

https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/conservation/water-use-calculator

Daily: 216 gallons

Weekly: 1,512 gallons

Monthly: 6,048 gallons

Yearly: 78,624 gallons

Per day per person: 50


According to twdb.texas.gov, the average daily home water usage in Texas is 89 gallons per person per day. Going by this number, it seems we are below the average usage. I do water around my foundation, however, I tend to let my grass in the rest of my yard suffer. I know that 89 gallon number is probably including households of people who live in HOAs and are required to water their lawn at a certain standard. I personally don’t care if my grass turns brown at the end of summer; I’ve always felt that lawns are a waste of water anyway, and fortunately I don’t have an HOA knocking at my door so I let it slide. I’m not sure what type of grass we have but it is apparently pretty resilient because it grows back every year during the spring when it rains, and not watering it means that I don’t have to mow during the summer so, I don’t have a lot of motivation to water it.  I do water my roses bushes though. Those I really enjoy taking care of, and the flowers attract pollinators so it’s a win-win. We plan to one day replace most of our yard with landscaping that has no or very low water usage requirements, but it’s a project that will take some time and planning so we haven’t started it yet. 


We have four people and three pets in our household so it makes sense that we use a lot of water, but we try to be conscious about how much we use. When I find glasses of water sitting around the house those either go into the rose bushes or the pets’ water dish. I usually hand wash all of our dishes but make sure that I fill the sink up vs. letting it run the entire time. We also have a rule in our household that the washer has to be full before you run it - no washing 3-4 things because that’s a waste of water and power, even if it’s set to a small load. The cat washes himself thankfully, and the dogs get baths as needed, outside on the driveway (weather permitting) so the water runs off into the yard. I’m sure there are probably many other ways we could reduce our water usage, but those are the things that come to mind when I think about how we use water. I like to think that we are pretty environmentally conscious even if we aren’t perfect. We had solar panels installed on the house back in 2021 which offsets 80% of our electricity usage; I think that’s pretty impressive considering we have kids who seemingly are in competition to see who can leave the most lights on on a daily basis. I don’t know that we will ever get to a water neutral status but I think we are doing as much as we can given our current situation, and hopefully in the future technology will continue to provide solutions to help individuals and families reduce their household water usage. 

 Here are some of my roses!

Grandiflora Rose "State of Grace" 

Grandiflora Rose "Gold Medal"

Grandiflora Rose "State of Grace" 

Floribunda Rose "Plum Perfect"








References

"Water Use of Texas Water Utilities." Texas Water Development Board, 2015, www.twdb.texas.gov/publications/reports/special_legislative_reports/doc/2014_WaterUseOfTexasWaterUtilities.pdf.


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