Domestic water use is water used for indoor and outdoor household

purposes— all the things you do at home: drinking, preparing food, bathing,
washing clothes and dishes, brushing your teeth, watering the garden, and
even washing the dog.
Domestic water use (also called residential use, household use, or tap water
use) includes all indoor and outdoor uses of drinking quality water at single-
family and multifamily dwellings. These uses include a number of
defined purposes (or water end uses) such as flushing toilets,
washing clothes and dishes, showering and bathing, drinking, food
preparation, watering lawns and gardens, and maintaining
swimming pools.
Indoor water use includes water flows through fixtures and appliances inside the
house. The average daily indoor water use per household (averaging 2.65 people in
the North American sample) ranged from zero to 644 gphd (gallons per household
per day) and averaged 138 gphd, with standard deviation of about 80 gphd (or 521
liters per day and standard deviation of 300 liters).
Because the distribution of indoor use in the sample of homes is positively skewed, a
more appropriate measure of central tendency is the median, which is about 125
gphd (or 472 lphd)
Toilet flushing is the largest indoor use of water, followed by flows through kitchen
and bathroom faucets, showers, clothes washers, leaks, bathtubs,
other/miscellaneous uses, and dishwashers.
Here are some of the example od
indoor use and end uses of water:
 Toilet Flushing
 Showering
 Baths
 Clothes Washing
 Indor Leaks
 Dish Wasing

End uses of water for households in the U.S. in gallons per

household per day and percent of indoor use
 The outdoor residential water use includes landscape
irrigation, filling and back washing swimming pools, water used
through outdoor faucets (hose bibs) for washing pavement and cars,
and other outdoor uses. Annual outdoor use in North American cities
differs by climatic region and ranged from 13,000 gallons in
Waterloo, Canada to 120,400 gallons in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Domestic Water use includes the potable and non-potable

water.
 POTABLE WATER
Water that is safe for drinking is called potable water. It is most important that
the water which people drink and use for other purposes is clean water.
Potable water is used for preparing food or beverages for human consumption,
for washing dishes and utensils that are used to prepare or consume food or beverages,
for bathing, or for any other purpose that might result in the ingestion of water or its
contact with the skin.

 NON POTABLE WATER

Water that is not safe to drink is said to be non-potable. Non-potable water
sources include rainwater, reclaimed/recycled water and gray water. While non-potable
water is not appropriate for human consumption, it can be used in a myriad of other
applications, such as doing laundry, toilet and urinal flushing and cooling tower make up
water.
Some examples of non-potable water use in the workplace include:
 Rainwater from tanks used for various workplace uses, e.g. cooling towers and car
washing
 Swimming pool backwash water used for toilet flushing
 Class A recycled water from a sewage treatment plant used for dust suppression, car
washing, landscape irrigation or irrigation of sporting ovals.
 Public supply refers to water withdrawn by public and private water suppliers that
provide water to at least 25 people or have a minimum of 15 connections. Public-supply
water is delivered to users for domestic, commercial, and industrial purposes. Part of
the total is used for public services, such as public pools, parks, firefighting, water and
wastewater treatment, and municipal buildings, and some is unaccounted for because
of leaks, flushing, tower maintenance, and other system losses.

 Self-supply of water and sanitation (also called household-led water supply or

individual supply) refers to an approach of incremental improvements to water and
sanitation services, which are mainly financed by the user.
 Commercial operations are those that generally do not manufacture a product, but
provide a service, such as hospitals, restaurants, and schools.
Without water, restaurants could not supply meals or even clean up after the meals,
cars would go unwashed, and fires could be disastrous, with no means of dousing the blaze.
Green parks, recreational fields, and golf courses rely on water to keep the grass and soil
moist and healthy. Roadways would become dirty and grimy in the absence of any water-
based cleaning program. Offices would grind to a halt with no water available for drinking
and bathrooms, and office buildings, stores, and public and private centers would also be
dark places without the water necessary to generate electricity for lighting.
The water for these and other commercial uses comes from the surface and from
underground (groundwater) sources. The extent to which a community uses a surface or
a groundwater source depends on which source is more abundant in the particular area.
 Surface water that is obtained from a lagoon (shallow body of water cut off from a
larger body) can be suitable for keeping a golf course lush and green. Other commercial
water uses, such as drinking water, demand water that is free of chemicals and harmful
microorganisms.
 Surface water: Freshwater that is located on the surface, naturally in the form of streams,
rivers, lakes and other waterways, or in reservoirs, swimming pools, and other containers
that have been built.
 Groundwater: Freshwater that resides in rock and soil layers beneath Earth’s land
surface.

Commercial water use is also defined as water for motels, hotels, restaurants, office
buildings, other commercial facilities, military and nonmilitary institutions, and off stream
fish hatcheries. Water may be obtained from a public-supply system or may be self-
supplied.
 Office Buildings
Approximately nine percent of the total water use in commercial and institutional
facilities in the U.S. takes place in office buildings. The three largest uses of water in office
buildings are restrooms, heating and cooling, and landscaping.
To save water in your office building, you can:
 Develop a water management plan.
 Assess your water use to identify opportunities
for savings and track results.
 Check regularly for leaks and, when found,
repair them promptly.
 Replace bathroom fixtures with more efficient
models and check automatic sensors to ensure
they are operating properly to avoid
unnecessary water use.
 Use water smart landscaping and irrigation
practices.
 Optimize your cooling systems and determine if
they can provide or use alternative onsite
sources of water.
 Hospitals
Approximately seven percent of the total water use in commercial and institutional
facilities in the U.S. takes place in hospitals and other health care facilities. The largest uses
of water in hospitals are cooling equipment, plumbing fixtures, landscaping, and medical
process rinses.
To save water in your hospital, you can:
 Develop a water management plan.

 Assess your water use to identify opportunities for savings and

track results.
 Check regularly for leaks and, when found, repair them promptly.

 Replace bathroom fixtures with more efficient models.

 Retrofit or replace medical equipment to more efficient models.

 Eliminate single pass cooling by recirculating cooling water or

moving to air-cooled systems.
 Evaluate equipment in cafeterias and laundry for potential water
savings.
 Hotels
Approximately 15 percent of the total water use in commercial and institutional
facilities in the U.S. takes place in hotels and other lodging businesses. The largest uses of
water in hotels are restrooms, laundry operations, landscaping, and kitchens.
To save water in your hotel, you can:
 Develop a water management plan.

 Assess your water use to identify opportunities for savings

and track results.
 Check regularly for leaks and, when found, repair them
promptly.
 Upgrade your guests’ bathroom experience with more
efficient fixtures.
 Consider water-smart landscaping and irrigation practices
and control water losses from pools.
 Evaluate laundry equipment and food service areas for
potential water savings.
 Restaurants
Approximately 15 percent of the total water use in commercial and institutional
facilities in the U.S. takes place in hospitality and food service establishments. The largest
uses of water in restaurants are associated with equipment and processes that take place in
the kitchen. Restrooms follow kitchens as the second highest water use in restaurants.
To save water in your restaurant, you can:
 Develop a water management plan.
 Assess your water use to identify opportunities for savings and track results.
 Check regularly for leaks and, when found, repair them promptly.
 Upgrade dishwashers, ice machines, and steam cookers to ENERGY STAR qualified
models.
 Replace equipment that discharges water continuously, such as food disposals and dipper
wells, with more efficient models, or turn off when not in use.
 Clean up with more water-efficient spray valves.
 Check automatic sensors on bathroom fixtures to ensure they are operating properly and
avoid unnecessary water use.
 Educational Facilities
Approximately six percent of total water use in commercial and institutional facilities in
the U.S. takes place in educational facilities, such as schools, universities, museums and libraries.
The largest uses of water in educational facilities are restrooms, landscaping, heating and
cooling, and cafeteria kitchens.
 Develop a water management plan.
 Assess your water use to identify opportunities for savings and track results.
 Check regularly for leaks and, when found, repair them promptly.
 Replace bathroom fixtures with more efficient models.
 Use water-smart landscaping and irrigation practices.
 Optimize your cooling systems and determine if they can provide or use alternative onsite
sources of water.
 Evaluate equipment in cafeterias, laboratories, and other on-campus facilities for potential
water savings.