What’s Your Yearly Water Bill?
July 1, 2008 by Peggy
According to the EPA, the average household spends as much as $500 a year on water and sewage bills.
Assuming there’s not a noticeable increase in the cost of water service in your area, paying closer attention to your water bill can be a great way to gauge your use of water.
The EPA says that with a few simple changes you can save up to $170 a year for water.
One suggestion from the EPA is to replace older toilets with WaterSense labeled models. They aren’t weird-looking. The one to the right is one of many WaterSense toilets available.
If you’re building a home or renovating, be sure to let your contractor know you want a WaterSense toilet and faucet for water savings. WaterSense products perform at least 20% more efficiently than their less-efficient cousin toilets and faucets.
There are lots of other ways to save on your water bill as well. Check back for plenty of water conservation tips this month.
Do you pay careful attention to increases in your water bill?
Image: WaterSense labeled Cimarron toilet from Kohler.
O.k..here is a rant.
The cost of water/sewer in our area is outrageous.
I pay nearly 200.00 a month.
Now, you all KNOW that I am a freak about carbon footprints, being green, conserving natural resources….and I have been a freak about it since it was not cool.
Our city has over developed along our creek, causing lots of run-off and flooding. A few yearsa go they decided that everyone should pay a storm drainage fee..This is suppposedly to help defray the costs of dealing with the floods that happen often.
ha.
The water runs us about 75.00 a month
What is the rest?
Sewage fees and garbage fees.
We do not take daily showers, we water the garden with water collected from rain water, the stale water from the animals which is changed daily, and even by collecting the half glass of water that someone left on the counter. We use graywater.
DOing that I still pay close to 2,400 a year in water. MORE than I pay in electricity OR Natural Gas.
Our city is stupid.
Thank you for listening.
I dont want to run out and buy new toliets so I compromised…I put 2 bottles of water in the tanks of my toilet to use less water.
I also use bath water( I use natural products) to wter flowers and veggies
Maybe I should have talked about my water bill too — It was $4.89 last month, but that doesn’t count sewage and garbage. My bill breaks it down. Altogether for trash/pest/water/sewer I pay about $19 each month. It varies by a dollar or so. I think I may be lucky with having good quality water at affordable prices here.
Marye, I can’t imagine paying that much! I hope the city cleans up their act for you.
Wendy, I was saving the water displacement trick for another post, but yes — that’s a great way to get around buying a new toilet just for water savings. I think models before 1994 are the ones that are less efficient.
We pay around $350 a year. The prices here range from totally nuts, like Marye’s, to pretty normal, like ours. It changes literally by neighborhood.
I grew up with wellwater, so I looked at our first water bill like an idiot for a bit before asking my husband what the heck it was for.
Marye, that’s totally insane! We pay about $230 a year – but I could likely save more. One green thing we don’t do nearly as often as we could is reuse water – like bath or shower water for plants, etc.
I Know. Imagine if I was not a total freak about water use?