What is the average water usage for a family of 5?

Question

My Section 8 tenant's daily water usage ranges from 50 - 600 gallons per day.  It is a family of 3 adults and 2 children.  1 full bath and 1 half bath.  Is this normal?

Matthew Paul · Answer

Depends on how many women live there .  My water bill tripled when my wife moved in with me .   I did 1 load of laundry a week and took my monthly shower whether I needed it or not .

David Dachtera · Answer

High water usage + no water damage = no leak. That said, ...

You may have toilet float / flush valves ("flappers")  that need to be looked at or faucets that don't shut off fully. Replace or repair fixtures as needed.

The low-flow items can help if your tenants leave the water running during various activities - tooth brushing, face washing, kitchen activities, etc.

Depending on the heating systems, be sure to check that humidifiers aren't wasting water. Aprilaire and others like them are notorious for this. Older Sears / Homart, also.

Don't expect much improvement putting flow restrictors in front of bathtubs or clothes and dish washers. They'll still use the same amount of water, just take longer to fill. Low-flow shower heads can help, though you may find your tenants frustrated with them.

David J Dachtera

"Success is not a destination. Failure is not an event. Success is a process, failure is a choice."- DJ Benedict

Monique Rene Coates · Answer

This is a very educational post.  I'm learning more about high-use water than I ever knew.  Thank you all, and Brandt for asking the Q!

Frank N. · Answer

@Scott Williams @Monique Rene Coates Thanks for the input.   This apartment has been drawing that much water since 2011.  No leaks, just indiscriminate use of water.  They even used up all the hot water in a 75 gallon tank (the other unit was on vacation) one weekend.  I think that is hard to do but they are over achievers.  However, the tenant pays the water every time.  The first two months, I'm like omg you have a leak. No leak.

My landlord colleagues think I micromanage this water thing.  I even have a small script to scrap data from the NYC water site ever morning to give me an idea of water usage of my properties for the day before. That daily checkin has saved me a good amount of money.  I had a running toilet that hurt me $50/day for three days till I had a chance to deploy someone out there.  I had my guy put in a toilet kit, $20 + 2 hour labor.  I don't even do flappers any more.  Full kit or new toilet.  Without that morning "wake up call", I think I would have missed it for weeks.

I have a 12 that was using about 1800 gallons a day and now its is up to 3600.  I put a cctv camera  on the meter to take a look at 3 and 4 am in the morning to see if it is running.  No such luck. Mostlikely an apartment (or two) has gained a few extra people and are taking more showers.  Leaks are easy to find and fix.  Extra people not so easy. That extra 5k/year is going to hurt my Tesla fund.

Joel Owens · Answer

You can't really compare water and sewer rates nationally as the amount charged per gallon varies by state and even county,city.

For instance in Fulton county Georgia they have very high water rates even with no leaks. So a 2 bed unit for example with average usage might be as an example 110 a month where the next county over might cost 70.

This is why water tends to be the biggest expense. If tenants are not paying they tend to use 30% more on average and also do not report sink drips and toilets running as it doesn't affect their wallets.

For best averages call your local water department and ask to speak to the engineer. They are the ones to ask when a landlord disputes a water bill to issue a credit and show a receipt. They know down to the penny almost what is average for the area and a certain size family. They tend to know this because some landlords will do a repair and then claim a higher gallon loss than actual to get a larger reduction.

Scott Williams · Answer

@Frank N. if you have tenants using 300 to 800 gallons per day then you likely have a leak. On a busy day, my 3 unit building in Brooklyn uses 80 gallons a day. Go to the utility website and look at the usage per hour. If you see a constant usage at 2, 3 and 4 in the morning then you have a leak. That's what was going on when I bought my place and I lowered the water bill from $3000 to $400 a quarter.

After I originally wrote is, I realized I as thinking of CF and not gallons. I went to check and my whole building ranges from 224 to 600 gallons a day, so I still say you might have a leak or see if they're running a private laundry service using your water.

Jeff Robert · Answer

Wow.  I've personally been on a well for 25 years, but I can't imagine my wife and I use more than 50 gallons a day.  Incredible.

Brandt Tingen · Answer

@Frank N. Good on you man I don't think that is overkill, these bills add up fast when you're not on top of them.  I signed up for my high usage alert through the water company, the issue with that is it only sends out an alert on monthly usage... kind of pointless if the problem is going on for weeks unnoticed.  Do you mind if I ask what kind of camera you use?  Landlords with multi's on well water must have it made.  With your water bills, do you have to send them to your tenants yourself with a breakdown of their usage, or do they come to your tenant's directly from the water authority?  I have a plumber telling me the city has to do the sub-metering, but I don't really care if it's the city or a plumber so long as I can separate water usage and charge for it.  If you are billing yourself my assumption is you give them a bill something like "the water bill for the property was $X and you used Y% therefore your monthly bill is Z?" Or do you just pick a rate per CF and charge them that way?

I have a huge crawl space and unfinished basements in these units where the mains are so the plumber could even install it there if possible.  Do you use manual meters or wireless ones that report numbers remotely?

A Tesla's nice but maybe consider a yacht?  I just saw this program as I am searching for a boat and I may not be ready for it but for someone who needs lots of deductions and would to spend some time every year on their boat and have free and clear yacht in 10-15 years, it seems like it could be pretty cool :) I'm still going to look into it with my accountant to give myself something to look forward to!

http://www.atlantic-cruising.com/boat-as-a-business/

Brandt Tingen · Answer

Thanks for all the advice.  Unit was built 75+ years ago.  Lots of deferred maintenance.  I probably need to change most of the fixtures to more efficient ones, and replace most of the shutoff valves.  This most recent one was a toilet leak.  Only thing is I'm not sure if the toilet itself is failed or just the guts.  I timed it at the meter the toilet was leaking 4 gallons per minute - seems like a lot.

Monique Rene Coates · Answer

If a family of 4 is using 800 gallons PER DAY there is definitely a leak!  We use this maintenance-free counter top water filter.  It is good for approx 25,000 gallons and is supposed to last about 2-3 years for 2 people.

Depends upon use.

That's an avg of 700 gallon per month or 350 gallons pp /mo

What is the average water usage for a family of 5?

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