I just got this years water bill.
We have had Christine’s mum with us for 6 months remember… (6 people in our house)
We have also been doing a few things around the house to reduce consumption. Things like a brick in the cistern of the kids toilet, a bucket in our shower to flush our toilet with, a bucket in the kids shower to water the plants in the patio with and so on…
2004/5 we used 217 kL
2005/6 we used 254kL
this year with our new water kick we used 208kL an all time low!
Just over 1000L a day, this is still not a good reading, but we came in at right on $150 .79 cents a day.
Anyone want to open their bills for us all to see here on the site?
Water trivia –
Every minute in Australia 60, 000L of drinkable water in mixed with our crap, urine and wads of toilet paper, and is forced by a modest wall of water through an s-bend. At that rate, we’re polluting the equivallent of an olympic swimming pool of water and flushing it down the toilet every 16 minutes.
Per family, that works out at about 200L of drinking water a day being flushed down the loo!
In developed countries the average daily water use per person can be as low as 30L. The world average is 139. In Australia, the driest country in the world – it’s 300L!! But our use doesn’t stop there, gardens, industry and agriculture consume much larger amounts on our behalf!
No Guarantees 
No bill. All rainwater.
Considering your location, I dont blame you! I lived in Adeliade for three years, and the water is absolutely awful.
(Good game against the Cats btw !)
Aghhhhhhh – You winner Glenn!!!
Same as you Scott, 6 in the fam, but we have no mother in law in the house, maybe that’s the cruncher:)I think it says something about how squeezed we are with house sizes etc in Oz. Living on say a 300m2 block of land with maximum house size, how could we expect people to have enough rainwater to service their home with that? We live on just under an acre and there’s tanks all over yet we still have enough room for kids to run rampant and me to have a ride-on for the many long weeds!
Yep bit of a sad game, oh well.
In the process of moving to rainwater, eventually we plan to keep the town water tapes OFF
we just need it to rain enough to fill our tanks.
maybe by that stage the water crisis will be over… hmmmmmm
Yep, just about 2 put in a rainwater tank- so looking 4ward to rain. Yes, it’s been dry in Melb 2. Grey water for the gardens. Now if only our parents will start helping with the cause.
When I have a bill I will post it up!
Not going to be pretty I suspect.
We are looking at our tank options at the moment – we have lots of roof area, but nowhere for decent sized tanks. I grew up with a medium 10000 litre tank at the back of the house and that is the smallest size I can conceive of being any real benefit to us.
Hmmmmmmm water for thought.
Get Smart would be so proud, the old brick in the toilet cistern hey? well done every little thing we can do does help the water crisis and environment. Also talking about toilets only toilet paper should be going down there not cotton buds, tissues, etc. Also a big no no is milk down the kitchen sink as the fat content blocks up our main pumping stations, many a poor water board worker called out in the wee hours of the night to unblock. Remember teach it to your kids ONLY TOILET PAPER DOWN THE TOILET.
Looked at getting a rainwater tank a couple of weeks ago to service some of our household needs – $3000 to get a tank hooked up to flush just ONE toilet!
Broady
Go the quokka Broady, you can get a 4500L for $200 every now and then.
nice tip!
My shed is located behind a water tank manufacturer. Just thought you’d like to know.
I hope we all watched the New Inventors tonight!
hi guys
for all the talk of sustainability people do it’s great to see some action – or at least some talk of some action.
ours came in (family of 4) at $113.55. we used 108kL. We were a bit naughty as we went through a “selling the house” phase during summer and watered the lawns to keep them green (a little more than 2 days per week – true confessions). Last year we got 70kL. Hopefully now we’ve exorcised the “desire to move” demon we can get it down to a respectable level.
mikeb