Water supply planners estimate that a typical household needs 0.4 -0.5 acre feet of water per year (approximately 150,000 gal) to satisfy the demands of a home and landscape.
I have to believe that a lot of that is the landscape part. I admittedly live by myself but if I do the math right, it looks like I use about 3,000 gallons a year--virtually none of which is used outside the house.
3,000 gallons a year comes out to 8.2 gallons per day. Seems a bit low. Even a low flow toilet uses 1.1-1.6 gallons per flush.
In my experience, with a family of 4, a lawned landscape is gonna take up about 50-70% of your water use in SoCal. This is based upon living in a couple of places down here.
Also, pools are a giant red herring. A noncovered pool would take up about 5% of that above water budget. Once you cover it it consumes basically no water (once filled).
Note that drought tolerant grasses use upwards of 60% less water than standard lawns. And subsurface irrigation uses upwards of 70% less water. Still not a good idea to have tons of the stuff, but if you want a small patch of it you can do so without blowing the water budget. Most people don't do this though.
I'm usually at my town $50 minimum and my last quarterly bill was for 100 cu.ft. So 3,000 gallons a year. I would say that of course I'm not there all the time--and pre-COVID I travelled a lot--but not true at the moment. I did grow up in a house with a poor water supply from a well so I probably have a lot of habits related to not running water unnecessarily. I agree it seems low but that's what the numbers say. (And, as I say, this is mostly just one person.)
I live in New England and haven't watered my lawn since it was established and rarely water gardens. Even if things can get a bit brown during the summer, they come back.
Are you sure there isn't a base amount of water usage captured in the minimum charge? 2 toilet flushes a day (1 solid, 1 liquid) and a 3 minute shower gets you to 8 gals/day before you've washed any dishes or clothes.
I mean, if you are able to keep your water use that low, congrats and keep it up. We could all use more people like you. In reality, I'm guessing you are using a bit more than that however.
It's the actual amount on my water bill. And yeah. 2-3 toilet flushes a day. Probably a 3 minute shower. A gallon or two for plants. The biweekly high-efficiency washer. (And I'm sometimes traveling but much less so recently.) The weekly dishwash. Etc. Surprises me too. But that's what the numbers say. Not even trying to be unusually convervationist.
Water supply planners estimate that a typical household needs 0.4 -0.5 acre feet of water per year (approximately 150,000 gal) to satisfy the demands of a home and landscape.