Saving Water in Southern Homes – Behavior Matters
Saving water is an important part of the Green movement, so I decided to explore how to save 
water in homes – particularly in southern homes. Let’s look first at personal water use.
To put water use in perspective, the average water use per person in the US is about 1400 gallons per day, about 3x the world average. The trend is down – it was 1940 gallons per day in 1975. Most of the water is used in energy production, manufacturing, and farming. DrinkTap.org estimates that the average person in the US uses about 69 gallons per day. Here is a breakdown of how that water is used.
You can see that the biggest water use is in toilets, followed by washing clothes and then showers. Of course this varies greatly from person to person. But one category jumps out at me – leaks account for almost 10 gallons per person per day. Simple maintenance can make a real difference – plus those leaks are probably causing damage!
The second table shows how water conservation can help reduce daily water consumption by 35%, to about 45 gallons per day. The big users are also the big winners, achieved by installing water conserving fixtures. I’ll cover them in an upcoming post, but I highly encourage their use in the Southern Homes I design.
But for now, here’s a list of 100 ways to conserve water (actually 112 ways) compiled by a non-profit group. There is some really practical advice on everyday activities – like washing dishes, cooking, bathing, watering the lawn, and even looking for leaks. I like the ones about using ice to water plants, and washing pets and the car in places that need water.
I think the best ways to save water from personal use is to be aware of the water you use daily, and to start making smarter choices.
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