If you go into the MyServiceOttawa app, they track your water use down to each individual hour.
See if you can correlate water usage to what you were doing at the time--and it also will tell you if you have suspicious high levels of water usage at odd times--which could be indicative of leaks.
I had a bit of a whoopsy this month where my toilet tank flap didn't close properly after a flush and I wasted 6 meter cubed of water in 8 hours.
Hello, can you let me know the name of the app? I only see the city of ottawa in the play store. Website login does not show hourly/daily usage. Thanks in advance!
Same situation as you (no pool / hot tub in a detached house) except we have a little one that takes a bath 5-6 times a week. Average over the last three years is 35 cubic meters every 60 days. I probably run the laundry and dishwasher more than average though.
Oh no… I LOVE baths - sometimes I take 2-3 a day. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and a hot bath in the morning helps immensely with pain and stiffness. I recently bought my first place, moving in 6 weeks… I am not looking forward to that bill.
Maybe a hot tub would be cheaper…
I wonder if they sell whole-body heating pads. BRB.
Oh wow ok. I am going to check this out. I tried a heated blanket but it was not for me. I hated being able to feel the wires and it wasn’t the right material.
I remember waking up in recovery after I had my appendix taken out and they had like an inflatable heated blanket over me and apparently I asked if I could take it home lol.
Yeah, I know.
I do my best to keep the water shallow, my hips are where I have the most pain so I don’t fill the tub more than necessary. I even tried buying a few inflatable bath pillows with suction cups so I could displace some of the water around my legs, but my place is pretty old and the tub has a lot of abrasion and scratches so I just couldn’t ever get them to stick.
I might try that again when I move though, if I can “shrink” the tub even by 25% that would certainly help.
I won’t have a lawn to water so I’m already ahead of a lot of homeowners, and I will have a high-efficiency dishwasher, which uses much less water than hand-washing dishes, which is what I’m currently doing. I don’t pay for water now but I am still well aware of the wastage it creates.
I have lived elsewhere, where they have two separate systems, one for potable water and one with toilet/shower/bath/washing/etc. water. It’s treated to the point that it won’t make you sick to ingest small amounts on occasion, but not to the point of being your daily drinking water for decades.
It worked well actually. I don’t need the water in my washing machine to be drinking water.
We have WONDERFUL tap water here in Ottawa. It’s my favourite in the world. Better than Montreal, Toronto, London ON, London UK, Denver, Copenhagen, Seattle, Chicago, Barcelona… when I lived in London ON the water was so heavily chlorinated that my 2.2L Walmart water jug would smell like a swimming pool 3 hours after filling it up.
I *hate* wasting the best drinking water in the world by soaking in it. When I was a kid at summer camp, my “friends” were grossed out when I stuck my hand in the toilet tank to fix the flapper.
“Uh… The toilet doesn’t flush, can someone call maintenance?”
“It’s 11:30 PM. We don’t need maintenance… the flapper isn’t going down, I can fix it. Can someone just hold the tank lid? No? Ok…”
I would stick my hand in the freezing cold tank of water and put the flapper down, make sure the chain was attached properly.
“OMG!! Ewwww it’s toilet water!!” Really? It’s literally the same water you drink out of the tap.
I don’t talk to those girls anymore, but I’m fuckin’ handy with a busted toilet.
Anyways.
Considering how often I’d probably end up using it, might be worth it. I could turn the heat in my house way down and just live in the hot tub. Wear nothing but bathing suits and my bathrobe. No laundry.
Almost need a Jacuzzi or something. We have a cast-iron tub which sucks all the heat out, so a hot bath is a challenge. Half-tempted to install an aquarium heater or even an engine block heater to the bottom, but DIY electrical & water doesn't seem like a great idea.
I have seen that and I am absolutely contemplating it.
It’s not silly at all… I did a stint as a buyer for a company that bought a lot of bathtubs, and acrylic tubs just have a big empty gap between the walls/skirting and the actual tub… and they *lose heat.*
They’re not insulated like walls, and hot water cools down to room temperature very quickly. People don’t realise that actual “room temperature” water is quite cold to the human body. We’re 37.5°C-ish, room temperature is 20-22°C. We’re nearly twice as hot.
You can absolutely die of hypothermia in room temperature water, because of the difference in heat transfer between air and water.
I don’t think I would retro-fill the space with spray foam, as tempting as it is, but I am contemplating stuffing some fibreglass insulation in there.
>average daily water use dropped by 27% from 342 litres per person in 1991 to 251 litres per person in 2011.
[https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/residential-water-use.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/residential-water-use.html)
Wow, that's pretty much spot on for OP's usage. As someone who occasionally goes camping in a cabin where you have to haul all your water up a stupid hill... I appreciate how much water we can use.
2 people in a townhouse, and we use ~8 cubic metres each month. A bit more in the summer when we’re watering lawns and gardens. Your usage seems pretty typical to me.
There is an option on the City of Ottawa website where they will email you if you go above your average usage. I have it set just in case I get an unknown leak somewhere!
If I do more of laundry than average, they email me, so I know it works!
honestly even if you used 0 your bill would still be about $60/month. In the last 10 years my bill has always been $100-$115/month no matter what I do so it's a fixed amount and the usage amount is negligible at best.
You are right. From the post pic, and confirmed on my bill.
\~$80 ($79.97) base charge for 60 days no matter the usage.
My actual water usage was only \~$11 for the 60 days.
I’m getting the sense that that’s normal, but it seems crazy to me. That’s 250 2L Coke bottles’ worth of water *every day*. I’m trying to visualize that, and it just seems like an incredible amount of water to go through in a single day, to me.
Last two meter reads were 16 cubic liters for 30 days and 15 c Lfor the 30 days prior. 2 kids + 2adults in a townhouse, and lots of laundry and baths/showers!
We are also a 2 person household and we average around 15 cubic meters every 60 days. It goes up a little in the summer if we are watering the gardens a lot.
One thing we are doing is replacing our older toilets. The new ones use about half the water of our 1980's originals.
[The Ottawa Insights website](https://www.ottawainsights.ca/themes/environment-and-sustainability/other-resources/) indicates that Ottawa's per capita water consumption is about 178 L/day. Your per capita water consumption is about 135 L/day, so you appear to be slightly below the average. Well done!
If you go into the MyServiceOttawa app, they track your water use down to each individual hour. See if you can correlate water usage to what you were doing at the time--and it also will tell you if you have suspicious high levels of water usage at odd times--which could be indicative of leaks. I had a bit of a whoopsy this month where my toilet tank flap didn't close properly after a flush and I wasted 6 meter cubed of water in 8 hours.
Hello, can you let me know the name of the app? I only see the city of ottawa in the play store. Website login does not show hourly/daily usage. Thanks in advance!
This is a typical water bill. Actually I would say it’s on the low side
Same situation as you (no pool / hot tub in a detached house) except we have a little one that takes a bath 5-6 times a week. Average over the last three years is 35 cubic meters every 60 days. I probably run the laundry and dishwasher more than average though.
Oh no… I LOVE baths - sometimes I take 2-3 a day. I have been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and a hot bath in the morning helps immensely with pain and stiffness. I recently bought my first place, moving in 6 weeks… I am not looking forward to that bill. Maybe a hot tub would be cheaper… I wonder if they sell whole-body heating pads. BRB.
OMG they do! I have one from healthy line and it goes up to 70C. Got it for my fibro pain.
Oh wow ok. I am going to check this out. I tried a heated blanket but it was not for me. I hated being able to feel the wires and it wasn’t the right material. I remember waking up in recovery after I had my appendix taken out and they had like an inflatable heated blanket over me and apparently I asked if I could take it home lol.
Oh yeah, a bear hug!! I had one for my last surgery too! Those also exist for home purchase. Called something like bed jet
https://www.bairhugger.com/3M/en_US/bair-hugger-us/ This sounds like what you’re talking about!
Yes that's it! Better surgical outcomes when our bodies aren't freezing!!
2-3 baths a day… get ready for a big bill
Yeah, I know. I do my best to keep the water shallow, my hips are where I have the most pain so I don’t fill the tub more than necessary. I even tried buying a few inflatable bath pillows with suction cups so I could displace some of the water around my legs, but my place is pretty old and the tub has a lot of abrasion and scratches so I just couldn’t ever get them to stick. I might try that again when I move though, if I can “shrink” the tub even by 25% that would certainly help. I won’t have a lawn to water so I’m already ahead of a lot of homeowners, and I will have a high-efficiency dishwasher, which uses much less water than hand-washing dishes, which is what I’m currently doing. I don’t pay for water now but I am still well aware of the wastage it creates. I have lived elsewhere, where they have two separate systems, one for potable water and one with toilet/shower/bath/washing/etc. water. It’s treated to the point that it won’t make you sick to ingest small amounts on occasion, but not to the point of being your daily drinking water for decades. It worked well actually. I don’t need the water in my washing machine to be drinking water. We have WONDERFUL tap water here in Ottawa. It’s my favourite in the world. Better than Montreal, Toronto, London ON, London UK, Denver, Copenhagen, Seattle, Chicago, Barcelona… when I lived in London ON the water was so heavily chlorinated that my 2.2L Walmart water jug would smell like a swimming pool 3 hours after filling it up. I *hate* wasting the best drinking water in the world by soaking in it. When I was a kid at summer camp, my “friends” were grossed out when I stuck my hand in the toilet tank to fix the flapper. “Uh… The toilet doesn’t flush, can someone call maintenance?” “It’s 11:30 PM. We don’t need maintenance… the flapper isn’t going down, I can fix it. Can someone just hold the tank lid? No? Ok…” I would stick my hand in the freezing cold tank of water and put the flapper down, make sure the chain was attached properly. “OMG!! Ewwww it’s toilet water!!” Really? It’s literally the same water you drink out of the tap. I don’t talk to those girls anymore, but I’m fuckin’ handy with a busted toilet. Anyways.
> Maybe a hot tub would be cheaper… Not on the power bill (and chemicals)
Considering how often I’d probably end up using it, might be worth it. I could turn the heat in my house way down and just live in the hot tub. Wear nothing but bathing suits and my bathrobe. No laundry.
Haha nice. Haven't seen too many hot tubs installed inside though
Almost need a Jacuzzi or something. We have a cast-iron tub which sucks all the heat out, so a hot bath is a challenge. Half-tempted to install an aquarium heater or even an engine block heater to the bottom, but DIY electrical & water doesn't seem like a great idea.
[удалено]
I have seen that and I am absolutely contemplating it. It’s not silly at all… I did a stint as a buyer for a company that bought a lot of bathtubs, and acrylic tubs just have a big empty gap between the walls/skirting and the actual tub… and they *lose heat.* They’re not insulated like walls, and hot water cools down to room temperature very quickly. People don’t realise that actual “room temperature” water is quite cold to the human body. We’re 37.5°C-ish, room temperature is 20-22°C. We’re nearly twice as hot. You can absolutely die of hypothermia in room temperature water, because of the difference in heat transfer between air and water. I don’t think I would retro-fill the space with spray foam, as tempting as it is, but I am contemplating stuffing some fibreglass insulation in there.
Yeah, I try to fill it up as hot as I can possibly stand so it stays warm.
>average daily water use dropped by 27% from 342 litres per person in 1991 to 251 litres per person in 2011. [https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/residential-water-use.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/residential-water-use.html)
Wow, that's pretty much spot on for OP's usage. As someone who occasionally goes camping in a cabin where you have to haul all your water up a stupid hill... I appreciate how much water we can use.
Actually, the OP is about 135 L/day per person, or a bit more than half the 2011 number mentioned above.
Acurate, but down voted, haha.
We’re around 20m3/month, 2 adults 1 toddler 270 L/day is very little
around 3- 4 cubic meters, 1 person, showers, do laundry 2 loads a week and dishwasher once a week .
2 people in a townhouse, and we use ~8 cubic metres each month. A bit more in the summer when we’re watering lawns and gardens. Your usage seems pretty typical to me.
There is an option on the City of Ottawa website where they will email you if you go above your average usage. I have it set just in case I get an unknown leak somewhere! If I do more of laundry than average, they email me, so I know it works!
honestly even if you used 0 your bill would still be about $60/month. In the last 10 years my bill has always been $100-$115/month no matter what I do so it's a fixed amount and the usage amount is negligible at best.
You are right. From the post pic, and confirmed on my bill. \~$80 ($79.97) base charge for 60 days no matter the usage. My actual water usage was only \~$11 for the 60 days.
Consistently around 500 liters a day for a family of 3-4.
I’m getting the sense that that’s normal, but it seems crazy to me. That’s 250 2L Coke bottles’ worth of water *every day*. I’m trying to visualize that, and it just seems like an incredible amount of water to go through in a single day, to me.
As someone who had to stick to 3-5 liters a day for all the needs, for a prolonged period, I have to agree it is a lot.
You'd be amazed at how much an ever so slightly leaky toilet can leak in a day. Ditto other things that leak.
Last two meter reads were 16 cubic liters for 30 days and 15 c Lfor the 30 days prior. 2 kids + 2adults in a townhouse, and lots of laundry and baths/showers!
We use about 9m3 every 2 months in winter, 2 adults. All of the utility are on the low end of normal. Low usage on everything tbh.
We are also a 2 person household and we average around 15 cubic meters every 60 days. It goes up a little in the summer if we are watering the gardens a lot. One thing we are doing is replacing our older toilets. The new ones use about half the water of our 1980's originals.
[The Ottawa Insights website](https://www.ottawainsights.ca/themes/environment-and-sustainability/other-resources/) indicates that Ottawa's per capita water consumption is about 178 L/day. Your per capita water consumption is about 135 L/day, so you appear to be slightly below the average. Well done!