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Choose litres or US gallons to load example values, then adjust them to your household. Showers, toilet flushes and laundry are the largest indoor uses; the result shows the total per day, month and year.

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Switching loads typical values in that unit.
Everyone who lives there most days.
Where do I find this?

Count everyone who showers and uses the toilet at home on a normal day.

Add up all showers of one person on an average day.
Where do I find this?

Time a normal shower once; most people underestimate it.

Standard showerheads: 2.5 gallons (about 9.5 litres) per minute.
Where do I find this?

Hold a bucket under the shower for 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to measure it.

Water-saving showerheads with the WaterSense label use no more than 2.0 gallons (about 7.6 litres) per minute.

About 5 is common for a day spent at home.
Where do I find this?

Fewer if people are at work or school during the day.

Current US standard 1.6 gallons (about 6 litres); old toilets up to 6 gallons.
Where do I find this?

The year of the toilet helps: models from before 1994 in the US often use 3.5 gallons or more.

WaterSense labelled toilets use 1.28 gallons or less; dual-flush toilets in Europe often 6 or 3 litres.

Washing machine runs per week.
Where do I find this?

Count all machine runs, including towels and bedding.

From the manual or energy label; efficient machines use less.
Where do I find this?

The EU energy label states the water per cycle in litres. Older top-loaders use much more than modern front-loaders.

Price per 1,000 gallons, or per 1,000 litres (= per m³), including sewer charges.
Where do I find this?

The water bill shows the price per 1,000 gallons, per CCF (748 gallons) or per m³ (1,000 litres). Add the wastewater price for the full cost.

Only changes the symbol; no exchange rate is applied.

Result

Enter your values to see the result.

Household per day
– gal / l
Per person per day
– gal / l
Per month
– gal / l
Per year
– gal / l
Cost per year
–

Want this tracked for you? UtilityControl logs your meters and costs automatically.

How it is calculated

  • Per day = people × (shower minutes × flow + flushes × water per flush) + laundry loads per week × water per load ÷ 7
  • Per year = per day × 365; cost = per year ÷ 1,000 × price per 1,000

Example

Two people, 8 shower minutes each at 2.5 gallons a minute, 5 flushes of 1.6 gallons and 4 loads of 20 gallons a week: 2 × (20 + 8) + 80 ÷ 7 ≈ 67 gallons a day, about 24,600 gallons a year.

What this estimate leaves out

Only showers, toilets and laundry are counted. Baths, cooking, dishwashing, the garden and leaks add more: outdoor use alone is more than 30 % of household water on average in the US. Your water meter shows the full figure.

Sources: EPA WaterSense: statistics and facts · EPA WaterSense: showerheads · EPA WaterSense: residential toilets

Written and reviewed by QLines, Cologne · Last reviewed

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How much water does the average person use per day?

In the US about 82 gallons (about 310 litres) a day at home, according to the EPA citing USGS data. Many European countries are lower, often around 120 to 150 litres.

How much water does a shower use?

A standard showerhead uses 2.5 gallons (9.5 litres) a minute, so an 8-minute shower is about 20 gallons (76 litres). A WaterSense showerhead uses at most 2.0 gallons a minute.

How much water does a toilet flush use?

1.6 gallons (6 litres) for toilets made to the current US standard, 1.28 gallons or less for WaterSense models, and up to 6 gallons for old toilets.

How much water do leaks waste?

The EPA estimates that household leaks can waste about 9,400 gallons a year in an average family. A water meter that moves while every tap is closed points to a leak.

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