4 ms·

At home, I think it's showers by far (something like 7 gal/minute, you do the math), ~50 gal for dishwasher or washing machine, then on down. And yea, most of t

• k-mcgrady 13y ago
  >> ~ 50 gal for dishwasher That one shocked me especially as someone who has never owned, and never plans to own a dishwasher. I probably use around 4 litres to fill the sink and wash the dishes, at most 3 times per day - which works out at around 3.1 US Gallons/2.6 imperial gallons.
  • derwiki 13y ago
    As I corrected, 15 gal/load for dishwasher. So, coupled with the fact that a running faucet is 3 gal/minute, a dishwasher is better if you leave the faucet running while hand washing dishes, and take longer than 5 minutes.
    • k-mcgrady 13y ago
      I didn't see the correction. I don't know many people who run the tap when washing the dishes. Generally I plug the sink and spend 1-2 minutes filling it with water. It still seems to work out less but I guess it depends on how ofter you fill the sink/run the dishwasher.
      • VLM 13y ago
        I used to use a huge amount of water when handwashing by rinsing under flowing water. Soap tastes icky and some screw up your digestion. Its possible you're not rinsing under flowing water. Also consider the ratio of sink size to dishwasher size, which is a fad/style issue. My kitchen sink doing a realistic sinkful of dishes only holds perhaps 1/4 the dishes my washer holds. It seems difficult, although not impossible, to buy a non-energy star dishwasher which means less than 6 gallons per load. One point that everyone seems to miss is the amount of soap and biomatter being flushed thru the pipes is a constant, no matter if you handwash and use 20 gallons or use a machine and only use 5 gallons. So I donno about sewer system efficiency given an intake flow that might be 4 times more or less dilute. I can do one dishwasher full of dishes using about 6 gallons, or about 3 to 4 sinks full, each maybe 10 gallons, for a total around 30-40 gallons. I believe this estimate to be true... in the ancient years of hand washing and old fashioned tanks, I could use up all the hot water in a 30 gallon hot water heater after thanksgiving by the end of dish time. Now that I have the tankless that will never run out, even after a handwashing thanksgiving, ironically I also now have a dishwasher which means I use practically no hot water anyway. There are other benefits to the tankless of course.
        • maxerickson 13y ago
          Sewers probably already have a harder time with the other major household source of solids.
      • ars 13y ago
        Washing by hand is always worse. > It still seems to work out less but I guess it depends on how ofter you fill the sink/run the dishwasher. No, it's not less. It's more. A dishwasher can hold a lot more dishes than a sink.
        • k-mcgrady 13y ago
          >> " A dishwasher can hold a lot more dishes than a sink." You put unclean dishes in the sink, wash them, take them out, and more more unclean ones in. The only limit to how many dishes you can put through the sink is how dirty the water gets which depends on how dirty the dishes are to begin with.
          • ars 13y ago
            And no matter how good you are at it, a dishwasher does it with less water.
  • maxerickson 13y ago
    A modern dishwasher uses ~5 gallons: http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=dishwash.pr_crit_dishwashers http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=dishwash.pr_crit_dishw...
    • kalleboo 13y ago
      Or down to 1.5 gallons http://www.topten.eu/?page=freestanding-2 http://www.topten.eu/?page=freestanding-2
  • sentenza 13y ago
    That 50 galon number is wrong. With a modern dishwasher (at least the ones sold here in Europe) you will always use less water than hand-washing, since there is massive re-circulation of the water in the dishwasher.
  • aestra 13y ago
    Do you not rinse the dishes? It is thought (I dont know if it is true) modern dishwashers are more water efficient than hand washing. It has been repeated to me before. Might be an urban legend.
  • vacri 13y ago
    4 litres is a low estimate. Think of 4 1-litre cartons side-by-side; that's barely enough to submerge a plate. Some people may use that little water when washing up, but most use more.
  • kalleboo 13y ago
    The most efficient dishwashers sold in the EU use down to 6 liters per wash. http://www.topten.eu/?page=freestanding-2 http://www.topten.eu/?page=freestanding-2
• JAFTEM 13y ago
  Does 'at home' include watering the lawn or garden? If the drought in California is a 'mega drought' like some news outlets are saying, I hear that cities could pass laws restricting residents from watering their lawns as it accounts for up to 50% of a household's water usage [0]. [0] http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140125/megadrought-could-have-catastrophic-effects-on-california http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140125/megadrought-c...
  • prawn 13y ago
    This has happened in Australia in the past, in capital cities. You can get reported for watering your garden on the wrong days.