What does the water company charge you for?

[Rich256]

Around here Acre Foot is quite common (about 326,000 gallons, 1233 cubic meters). That also happens to be a approximate amount that a family of

4 uses in a year.

[Steve Barker]

That's 27,000+ gallons a month. My house never used a tenth of that with 5 in it.

[Doug Miller]

Baloney. What water utility measures *residential* water usage in acre- feet?? Agricultural or industrial, perhaps. But residential? No way.

Baloney again. Do the math.

No, wait, here, I'll do it for you, since you're obviously "challenged" in that area.

1 a-f = 326000 gallons (you did get that part right -- but that's all) 326000 gallons in a year = 892 gallons PER DAY Now divide by 4 people...

223 gallons PER PERSON PER DAY.

Baloney.

[George E. Cawthon]

Sounds a little high to me, too. I think our highest one month usage was 23,000 gallons, which included a lot of irrigation. Usage between irrigation seasons is normally around 4000 gallons. To be fair, usage varies greatly throughout the nation.

[Dave Martindale]

Do you mean a short ton, a long ton, or a metric ton?

Dave

[Doug Miller]

Only because you haven't troubled yourself to find out what units your water utility is using.

Uh-huh. Right. Which "ton" are you talking about, the one that weighs

2000 pounds, the one that weighs 2240 pounds, or the one that weighs 1000 kilograms?

So how hard is it, exactly, to call the water utility and ask them what it means?

[JoeSpareBedroom]

That would require a local phonecall, using a telephone, and speaking to another human being.

[L]

I agree that an acre-foot seems hig for annual use for 4 people, but a tenth of that for 5 comes to about 20 gallons a day per person. Good for you and your family if yo achieve that, but average residential use is closer to 100 gallons per person.

[Steve Barker]

That works up to 12,000 gal a month for a family of 4. WHEW! Not even, not here. Ever. And that was with 3+gallon toilets back then. We might have come close on the month we opened the pool each year. It usually took about

6000 to top it off each year.

[SJF]

[SJF]

Here in Las Vegas (desert climate) per capita usage is commonly stated to be

300 gallons per person per day. That is a water utility planning figure and includes commercial usage and rather heavy residential irrigation usage. In most areas of the country, 100 gpd is more common as I recall.

My in-house use measured at the water softener is about 100 gpd for two people. In the summer my total usage goes up to 2500 gallons per day including the water used to irrigate a large yard.

SJF

[Paul M. Eldridge]

Some of these numbers have me scratching my head. Between September

23rd and January 2nd, our two-person household averaged 137 litres per day; that's 18.2 gallons per person, per day.

We both shower every day, we do an average of two to three loads of laundry each week, we run the dishwasher once every four to five days and we flush toilets after use. Nothing, I assume, too far out of the ordinary.

I realize our consumption falls below most households and twice the water commission has sent someone out to verify that our meter is working correctly (no problems found). Still, we would need to increase our consumption six fold just to bring it up to what is said to be the national average, and the only way we could do that would be to leave both kitchen taps running.

Cheers, Paul

[Edwin Pawlowski]

It's the desert. Why irrigate a large yard? Plant sand and rocks.

[Doug Miller]

If you wanted a large lush yard.... why the hell are you living in a desert? Quit wasting water.

[Rich256]

As Will Rogers once said "I only know what I read in the paper".

[Steve Barker]

Why irrigate a yard ANYwhere?

[Rich256]

I have to agree but I think one reasons is that the water is cheap compared to other places. It flows down the Colorado right into their back yard.

So if they conserve, where does it go? Back into the Pacific Ocean.

From what I have seen, not many in LV have very much grass. Perhaps much of that usage is the Casinos with their huge fountains etc. And, to supply all the tourists with baths and showers!! Lots of water used in the larger air conditioning systems too.

[George]

Since I am in the US the standard commercial definition of a ton is

2,000 lbs. A 1000 kg mass is spelled "tonne" to distinguish it from others. The "ton" that is derived from Imperial measurement is noted as a "long ton" to distinguish it from others.

So how hard is it, exactly, to just state an actual commonly used volume such as gallons instead of inventing a unit of measure called "unit" that requires someone to inquire what it might mean?

It just plain silly to reinvent stuff like that especially in the case of water there is a really common volume measurement that is recognized by everyone. What if you walked into a bakery and donuts were priced $5/unit? or you were interested in a new car and found that the fuel economy was 25 miles/unit?

[George]

And not a problem if there was some sensible reason to do it.

[Malcolm Hoar]

Aound here, Safeway price their donuts by the dozen. However, Safeway have also redefined the dozen as 14 donuts. Which all goes to prove that... stuff happens.