8/8/2019 How Much Water Should We Be Using

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How much water should we be using?

Find out more about typical and best practice benchmarks

Your water use figure on its own doesn't tell you how much you could save. To do that, you need to compare your water

use to the benchmarks in the table shown below.

Even if you are at or below the best practice benchmark, you may still be able to reduce your water use.

Table of typical and best practice benchmarks

Typical Best practice Unit Sample

Office 9.3 6.4 cu.m/person/yr 500

Prison with laundry 143 115.3 cu.m/prisoner/yr 144

Prisoner without laundry 116.6 9.4 cu.m/prisoner/yr "Primary school with pool 4.3 3.1 cu.m/pupil/yr 14,330

Primary school without pool 3.8 2.7 cu.m/pupil/yr "

Secondary school with pool 5.1 3.6 cu.m/pupil/yr "

Secondary school without pool 3.9 2.7 cu.m/pupil/yr "

Defra laboratory 0.767 0.612 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 14

Large acute or teaching hospital *1 1.66 1.38 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 273

Small acute or long stay hospital *1 without

personal laundry1.17 0.90 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr "

with personal laundry 1.56 1.24 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr "

Court with catering facilities 0.54 0.35 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 44

Court without catering facilities 0.25 0.20 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr "

Museum and art gallery 0.332 0.181 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 50Nursing home 80.6 68.5 cu.m/resident/yr 70

College and university 0.62 0.40 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 127

Public lavatory 10.7 6.0 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 86

Police station 0.92 0.63 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 141

Sports centre 0.0385 0.0305 cu.m/visitor/yr 65

Library 0.203 0.128 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 89

Community centre 0.326 0.173 cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 62

Fire station 15.08 9.38 cu.m/person/yr 61

Coastguard station 2 12.62 no benchmark cu.m/person/yr 116

Depots no benchmark 23

Golf courses no benchmark 45

Vehicle inspectorate depot 3 0.12 no benchmark cu.m/m2 floor area/yr 71

1 For all hospitals with central laundry facilities add 8.2 litres per laundry article/yr

2 No benchmark recommended figure should be used as a guideline only

3 Due to small sample size, good practice benchmarks were not calculated

Source: The Watermark project

Information from Environment Agency

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/water/34866.aspx

Author: The Environment Agency | enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk

Last updated: 16 March 2010

Environment Agency 2010