See how much water your household actually uses each day, and find easy ways to cut back without sacrificing comfort.
This tool estimates your household's water use by activity: showers, toilet flushes, hand washing, laundry, dishwashing, and cooking or drinking water. Enter how many people live in your home and roughly how often each activity happens per day, and it converts that into daily, monthly, and yearly totals in both liters and gallons.
Toilets and showers are usually the two biggest indoor water users in a typical home. An older toilet can use up to 13 liters per flush, while a modern low-flow model uses as little as 4-6 liters. A standard showerhead runs about 9.5 liters per minute, so an 8-minute shower uses roughly 76 liters — cutting shower time by even two minutes adds up fast across a household of four.
It's a common assumption that hand washing dishes saves water, but the opposite is usually true. A modern ENERGY STAR dishwasher uses about 12-15 liters per full cycle, while hand washing the same load under a running tap can use well over 100 liters. Running full loads in both dishwashers and washing machines is one of the simplest ways to lower your total.
A single dripping faucet can waste thousands of liters a year without anyone noticing. If you want to check for a hidden leak, look at your water meter before bed and again in the morning without using any water — a change in the reading points to a leak somewhere in your plumbing, most often a toilet or an underground pipe.
Q: How much water does an 8-minute shower use?
A: A standard showerhead uses about 9.5 liters (2.5 gallons) per minute, so an 8-minute shower uses roughly 76 liters (20 gallons).
Q: What is a "low-flow" faucet?
A: A faucet fitted with an aerator that mixes air into the stream, cutting flow from 10-15 liters per minute down to about 6 liters while keeping the pressure feeling strong.
Q: How can I detect if I have a water leak?
A: Check your water meter before bed and again the next morning without using any water. A changed reading means you likely have a leak in a toilet or pipe.
Q: Is rainwater safe to drink?
A: Not without filtration. It's fine for gardens or toilet flushing with a dedicated system, but it can pick up contaminants from roofs and the atmosphere.
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