Water savings - update

Several months ago I posted about my water bill and how my water usage had gone down by installing low-flow shower heads and dual-flush toilet conversion.  That post was only 3 months in so I wanted to do a followup now that it's almost a year since I made the changes.

The above graph is taken directly from my account on my water company's website.  It shows all months usage for 2014 and 2015.  The part shaded in red is before I made any changes in my water usage.  The part in green is after installing the water saving devices in my house.  The 2 month window between the two is a transition period.  I installed one shower head and dual-flush converter to try the products out and see if we liked them before ordering more and installing them everywhere in my house.

There are 3 months before making the switch that are deceptively low; January 2014, September 2014, and January 2015.  In all 3 cases they correspond to vacations of more than a week in length, so obviously if we're not home we're using less water.  If you ignore those 3 months, than my before usage averaged exactly 5.5 units per month (a unit being 100 cubic feet of water or 748 gallons).  After the switch that average dropped to exactly 4 units.  So we're saving approximately 1.5 units per month, or 1,122 gallons per month, 37 gallons per day, or close to 14,000 gallons in a year.

From a money-savings point of view, water in my area costs $7.90 per unit, so we're saving an average of $11.85 per month, or $142 per year.  Considering the hardware for this change cost about $120 I've recouped my investment already and each month will be savings from here on out.

Again, I did not make this switch to save money.  I made this switch to save water.  Even though it's winter and it's raining outside right now, California is still in a drought and our reservoirs are at an all-time low.  Saving water is not only the right thing to do, it's extremely important.  Saving money is just an added bonus.