Never thought I'd love my H2O bill

My semi-annual water bill arrived in the mail today and it’s a good thing I was sitting down when I opened it. I only owe the city $133 for six months of water and sewerage. Whoo!!!

After my last water bill in November (which did *not* include any yard and garden watering from the previous summer since it rained four days out of seven), I decided it was high time to implement some conservation measures, especially since our water rates were scheduled to take a hefty jump in January. It was also an ideal opportunity to compare before and after water use since there wouldn’t be any significant changes in use patterns.

First, I put a half gallon container of water in the toilet tank. It doesn’t seem like much, but it adds up after 180 days of flushing. And I replaced the kitchen and bathroom sink faucet aerators. I bought a .5 gpm (gallons per minute) aerator for the bathroom sink faucet and a 1.5 gpm aerator for the kitchen sink. Both replaced 2.5 gpm aerators. I’ve timed/measured them and they deliver as advertised. It took about a week to get used to the lower water flow and, on occasion, I get a little impatient with the kitchen faucet when I’m filling up a pot, but the overall effect has been quite painless. It feels normal, now.

Just 3 simple conservation measures and I’ve cut our water use by about 31%, down from 1760 cubic feet to 1230 cubic feet. I am hugely surprised that we use that much water in the bathroom and kitchen sinks (plus per flush savings). I had thought our water use would drop by maybe 15-20%.

Now, according to my water bill, our household used 1770 fewer cubic feet (or 13,275 fewer gallons) of water than the average household in the water district for the last six months. That’s pretty cool, but it’s astonishing that we still managed to send 9,225 gallons down the drains. Next I want to try a 1 gallon water dam in the toilet tank and a 1.5 gpm shower head. It’ll be interesting to see how much difference they make.