How much is your water and sewer bill?

[NoMoreCityForMe]

In Denver I paid $10-20/month for water and sewer, but that was 1 adult and 2 dogs with occasional lawn watering. Each year there was an additional $40-something charge for storm drains. A friend in a neighboring city - 2 adults, one child, 3 dogs, regularly forgets to water the lawn - spends $100+. The difference is partly because of usage but mostly because her city charges a higher price.

 

[woodgeek]

My family of 4 with two teen girls uses ~5000 gallons a month, ~160 gal/day, charge is ~$50, or about a penny a gallon. Wife pays the sewer, I think it is less. EDIT: it is $20/mo.

My usage fluctuates a good bit, not correlated with us being in the house (nearly same usage when we're away for 3 weeks during the month). I conclude more than 50% of some months in just leakage, prob my 55 yo toilets, now in process of getting replaced.

 

[Drewman]

2 adults, two year old, and a puggle
well water and septic field
our ONLY utility is electric and we average $170/month.

This includes everything including heating and cooling - we have geothermal and hopefully soon a pacific energy FP30!

I know this isn't exactly relevant to the initial post I am just curious to see what others use and thought others may feel the same.

I feel quite blessed!

 

[HisTreeNut]

Our water/sewer is about $38.00 if we keep below 3000 gallons. Above 3000 up to 5000 gallons is about $52.00 per month. We do short showers, laundry once a week consolidating loads as best we can, only run the dishwasher when it is full, and we do not water the lawn...every little bit helps.
One thing we found that helps save water is buckets & pitchers. People always let water run until it is warm when washing dishes, taking a shower, etc, and that wastes water. My oldest child suggested we save that water and use it to fill pitchers, water flowers, and so on. Despite being a dry year, the flowerbeds & gardens did pretty well and the Brita pitcher was always full.
Just a few suggestions...

 

[brenndatomu]

I work for the local water dept and the current standard that is being used to estimate usage is 100 gallons per person per day. I know that varies wildly from person to person, but it is a good engineering average.
Oh, and in most places the sewer bill is figured as a percentage of the water usage so it is based off of the water meter

 

[Beer Belly]

I work for the local water dept and the current standard that is being used to estimate usage is 100 gallons per person per day. I know that varies wildly from person to person, but it is a good engineering average.
Oh, and in most places the sewer bill is figured as a percentage of the water usage so it is based off of the water meter

I'm not hooked up to Sewer, but the pipe is at the street should my Septic fail and need to hook up.....that pipe is costing us $22,000 even though we are not hooked up....which is okay, nice to have a back up in place. If we were hooked up, not sure of the cost, but they charge you 1 1/2 gallon of waste for every gallon of water used.....1/2 gallon is a lot of pee....then again, that's all water that is used...dishwasher, laundry, shower, car washing......

 

[brenndatomu]

but they charge you 1 1/2 gallon of waste for every gallon of water used.

No kiddin!? Man that is just nuts, 150%...wow. Ours is something like 75%...not sure exactly, we deduct a certain amount for water usage that ends up in the storm sewer or yard instead of the sanitary sewer, like washing your car and watering the lawn.

1/2 gallon is a lot of pee

Yah, especially when you figure that is city water too...didn't come out of thin air...well, maybe the beer did, unless you are buying beer made in your city

 

[sloeffle]

We used 3000 gallons ( 107.14 per day ) of water last month. Our water bill was $22.80. Two adults and one child in our household. We are on septic.

 

[Brian26]

Water bill is around $60 quarterly. I get a bill for around $100 a year from the town for sewer usage. It used be built into the property taxes but they now charge some kind of fee. It is not based of water usage like other towns. My town will also pump your septic tank if your not on sewer.

Sounds great until you see your property tax bill. lol

I am glad to be on city water and sewer. I hear nothing but horror stories from friends with septic and wells.

Why can’t we keep
Using property taxes
to pay for sewer service?

One of the conditions that the State of Connecticut
required as part of its settlement agreement with
the Town is that a sewer use fee be developed and
implemented. The State’s position is that there is
not a very direct relationship between the assessed
value of a property and the amount of sewage that is
generated from the property. The Town was able to
convince the State to agree to the Town’s continued
use of dedicated property taxes to pay for the capital
costs of the sewer system and for periodic pump-outs
for those properties that are not sewered.

 

[woodgeek]

Just figured out that one of my old toilets (i) can't be fixed easily (non-standard/available parts) and (ii) is leaking ~40 gallons/day, or $12/mo worth of water. It's twin I replaced this spring was prob leaking at least that much. I also determined that they are ~2.5 gpf, versus the nice 1.25 gpf I am replacing them with.

If I figure the pair of toilets was leaking 80 gal/day, plus getting flushed 16 times, swapping them both will save 100 g/day, or 36,500 gal/yr.

This works out to a ~2 year payback on my $400 new toilets.

 

[BrotherBart]

2 adults, two year old, and a puggle
well water and septic field
our ONLY utility is electric and we average $170/month.

This includes everything including heating and cooling - we have geothermal and hopefully soon a pacific energy FP30!

I know this isn't exactly relevant to the initial post I am just curious to see what others use and thought others may feel the same.

I feel quite blessed!

All well (pun intended) and good until you figure in that $1,250 well pump replacement I had and pumping the septic tank every three to five years at $250 a pop plus digging. And water filtration.