Average water bill for single family house San Diego?

[ocrenter]

City of SD, 13000 sqft, pool/spa, all drip irrigation. Lawn is green all year round (artificial). $200 every 2 month.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=flu][quote=UCGal]Here are the details for our bill. We have a 2000sf house and a separate 700 sf casita. Total residents 4 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog. Landscaping is watered with drip irrigation, which is turned off after every rain. During the winter, we pretty typically stay in the first pricing tier, during the spring/summer/fall we start going into the 2nd tier (more expensive).

Base water fee: $38.66
Water Used: $62.17 (14HCF first tier, 3 2nd tier)
Sewer base fee (less settlement): $30.66
Sewer service charge (based on water use): $60.74
Storm Drain: $1.90

So the fixed costs are pretty high – about $70/2 months. My total bill was $194.28.

It goes higher if you have a lot of lawn, a pool, teenagers who spend hours in the shower. (My kids are still young enough I have to tell them to take showers.)[/quote]

I think we discussed this some time ago ucgal in which we were comparing our water bills here, if I remember. I remember BG also commenting that about if we saved water at some specific months, the sewage fees would be less too…
Let me dig it up…[/quote]

flu, I don’t know where that thread is, but I seem to remember posting something like that. I had forgotten (from wa-a-a-ay back) that the City of SD has their water and sewer charges for residential customers on the same bill. This thread brings it all back to me now 🙂

ctr70, if you are property-shopping in the City of SD, your water bill will include your sewer charges.

The City of Chula Vista has five sewer tiers, IIRC and they are based upon the resident’s Nov thru April water usage with the Sweetwater Authority or Otay Water District. The agencies have no problem “comparing notes” with one another.

[LAAFTERHOURS]

3 person 2800 sq ft home with 6 zone sprinkler system that runs 3 times a week for roughly 4-6 minutes depending upon the station. My bill is 80-85 a month and we live in Vallecitos water district.

[CA renter]

Wow, you SD City folks have high charges.

We’ve lived in two homes that use Olivenhain MWD, and both lots were/are ~9,000-15,000 s.f., both with lots of grass, though we don’t try to keep it “country club” green. It probably helped that we had lots of trees at our old house, so our grass wasn’t sitting under the blazing sun all day and needed less water.

During the winter months in our old house, our total bill ran around $50/month. During the summer months, it would run anywhere from $65-$98/month. I can see only two bills for over $100 in the past ~8 years.

In our new house, which has a pool and a large yard with garden area and lots of grass, the charges have been about the same, but plan on this going up quite a bit more during summer months.

[sdrealtor]

That should be our new tagline.

“Come to gridlocked Nirvana….our water is cheaper!”

[Coronita]

I have a dumb question.

So my kid is still at an age where she prefers a bath versus shower. Problem is, it’s a lot of water to be filling up and draining… Question (and I know it probably sounds gross). But is there anything one can do to recycle the water for outdoors? Any water purification,etc. I mean the water doesn’t need to be drinking quality, but I would assume should have any bacteria/etc cleaned… I mean, how dirty can it really be?

Also, regarding getting a water filter. I’m still using bottled water, but considering switching to filtered water. However, I have heard that a lot of the filtered water system use anywhere from 1:1 to 1:4 ratio..That is, to have 1 gallon of filtered water, it takes 1-4 gallons to run through the system. True or false? If true, does the water just get sent out through the drain?

[The-Shoveler]

Get a bucket, use it to flush the toilet, or water the plants near the house.
I knew a guy who had a flow switch for his kitchen sink, one direction watered the planter, the other the drain, depending on what he was doing with the water,
sdr, I cannot see the traffic from my house, my goal is to never leave the house unless I want to.
Internet can do that for you.
Also I would rather hike in the hills than walk to the super market really.

[all]

[quote=flu]
Also, regarding getting a water filter. I’m still using bottled water, but considering switching to filtered water. However, I have heard that a lot of the filtered water system use anywhere from 1:1 to 1:4 ratio..That is, to have 1 gallon of filtered water, it takes 1-4 gallons to run through the system. True or false? If true, does the water just get sent out through the drain?[/quote]

If you use Brita pitcher there will be no loss. If your refrigerator has the filter option you should be getting close to 0% loss. No idea how whole house filtration system works.

[sdrealtor]

[quote=The-Shoveler]Get a bucket, use it to flush the toilet, or water the plants near the house.
I knew a guy who had a flow switch for his kitchen sink, one direction watered the planter, the other the drain, depending on what he was doing with the water,
sdr, I cannot see the traffic from my house, my goal is to never leave the house unless I want to.
Internet can do that for you.
Also I would rather hike in the hills than walk to the super market really.[/quote]

Nice to meet you Mr Kaczynski

[The-Shoveler]

HA!!!
I don’t quite fit the profile as I do own a few cars and I am married
Also I have a few pets.

But when the Robo-Realtor takes your Job or the Terminator comes knocking , don’t say I did not warn you.

[sdrealtor]

HA back! The transactions I just went through the last month pretty much guarantee the days of Robo Realtor arent coming any sooner than my long awaited jet pack

[CA renter]

[quote=The-Shoveler]Get a bucket, use it to flush the toilet, or water the plants near the house.
I knew a guy who had a flow switch for his kitchen sink, one direction watered the planter, the other the drain, depending on what he was doing with the water,
sdr, I cannot see the traffic from my house, my goal is to never leave the house unless I want to.
Internet can do that for you.
Also I would rather hike in the hills than walk to the super market really.[/quote]

It really is shameful that we use potable water to flush the toilet and water lawns.

Here is an under-sink greywater recycling system we’ve looked into. Though it’s more work, perhaps one can siphon the water from the tub to the sink drain.

http://inhabitat.com/the-sloan-aqus-greywater-recycling-system/

[TheSeaward]

@flu: I just purchased and installed one of the reverse osmosis systems you are referring to. It was about $190 from costco and installs under the sink. I did a test and to make 3 gallons of water, it sent 13 gallons down the sink drain. Luckily it’s pretty easy to collect this water and use it for gardening, etc. I debated returning the unit, but thought it would be cool to have ultra pure water and figured out that it didn’t waste much water compared to other things in the house. I think we only use probably a max of a few cups a day, so it’s probably way less water wasted than say showering for a minute longer or adjusting the fill level of the toilet. Brita / Pur won’t waste any water, but those are charcoal only systems. If you are one of those concerned about fluoride and other things, then reverse osmosis is the only practical solution besides buying bottled. I think the RO system would still be much cheaper than bottled even with the waste water it generates. Hope this helps.

[waiting hawk]

Running Springs in the mountains I pay 54 a month not using 1 drop. In Alta Loma for my primary I pay 80-100 every 2 months water lawns and everything else. Go figure right.

[Coronita]

[quote=TheSeaward]@flu: I just purchased and installed one of the reverse osmosis systems you are referring to. It was about $190 from costco and installs under the sink. I did a test and to make 3 gallons of water, it sent 13 gallons down the sink drain. Luckily it’s pretty easy to collect this water and use it for gardening, etc. I debated returning the unit, but thought it would be cool to have ultra pure water and figured out that it didn’t waste much water compared to other things in the house. I think we only use probably a max of a few cups a day, so it’s probably way less water wasted than say showering for a minute longer or adjusting the fill level of the toilet. Brita / Pur won’t waste any water, but those are charcoal only systems. If you are one of those concerned about fluoride and other things, then reverse osmosis is the only practical solution besides buying bottled. I think the RO system would still be much cheaper than bottled even with the waste water it generates. Hope this helps.[/quote]

Yeah, I was talking about a reverse osmosis system. And yes, the one at costco I saw, and the reason I didn’t get it was because someone else got one from costco and told me it was roughly a 1:4 efficiency…..

But I’m curious. How do you collect the water. Do you install a different drain underneath and drain it there? If it’s easy to do, I might have second thoughts because me getting drinking water each time is kinda a pain not to mention all the plastic that is generated…

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