I’m turning into my dad. He would pee several times in the afternoon/evening and then flush the toilet just before going to bed. Why waste a gallon of water flushing a few ounces of pee?
I admit as a teen and young adult I flushed every time. Especially when my daughters were home. 4 people put out a lot of pee. But now with just my wife and I we only flush the toilet a couple times a day. Basically when the water gets noticeably yellow.
Brown bombers get flushed immediately. No question about that. I get nauseous in public restrooms when some inconsiderate jerk leaves a turd floating.
I’m in a state covered with water, source of THE major river of the continent. My 35 square mile suburb’s website says we have over 1,000 ponds and lakes (> 10 acres, probably close to a dozen of those) in the city. My apartment complex’s heating and water systems leak more water every day than I use in a month. I can’t imagine not flushing to save a couple of gallons.
That being said, the only time I don’t necessarily flush is when I get up in the middle of the night to pee. Then I leave it until after my morning shower to be flushed.
I tried the whole ‘not flushing when I pee’ thing, especially if it was early enough in the day/evening that I knew I was going to go at least one more time before I went to bed. I had a few observations. The bathroom smelled awful, even if I flushed the toilet it still started to take on that ‘public bathroom’ smell. And the bathroom is near the door to come into my house so I didn’t want everyone that walked into my house smelling that. Also, I found that my toilet got much dirtier much quicker, so what you’re saving in water your spending in cleaner and if you’re trying to save the environment, think of the extra chemicals you’re dumping down the drain and the extra bottles you’re putting in the recycling bin.
After a few weeks I did the math and found that I was saving something like $4 per year and decided that it’s just not worth it for a few flushes a day.
I absolutely look for every way to conserve water usage in our house, short showers, efficient washer, conservative sprinklers w/ sensors and I turn them off whenever the forecast permits. However, I’m not interested in a house that smells like pee so I flush every time. Also, we have an unusual number of bathrooms. I’d hate to forget one and let it cure for a couple of weeks.
For you guys that only flush sporadically - who cleans the toilets?
My husband “forgets” to flush. It Drives. Me. Nuts. I’m the one that cleans the effing bathrooms, and yes the toilets get gross faster, and the room stinks, when pee “mellows”. Yuck.
I spend most of my life dealing with the excrement of others. I’d like ONE being in this house (besides me) to be able to take care of their own!
Are water meters standard in the US? I pay a fixed amount for water regardless of how much I use. Obviously I don’t waste water for the sake of it, but yes I flush every time, except in the middle of the night I usually don’t as the noise can wake people up.
For most houses / single family residences, yes. In fact not only do you pay for what you use but often times it’s on a sliding scale where you pay increasingly higher rates for each increased plateau of use.
For apartments and the like I imagine you’ll see a mix between direct billed and all utilities included.
In rural and country settings it’ll be a mix too between those on city water and those with their own well system.
Not leaving a fire hydrant gushing water out in a torrent: useful saving of water
Not leaving your home garden hose pouring water out into the street between rinses while you wash your car: useful saving of water
Leaving your stinky fermenting pee in the toilet bowl to serve as growth medium for bacteria (the stuff comes out sterile but the bowl isn’t and pee is full of good nutritious bacteria-food) and to deposit stains on your porcelain and offend your guests and smell up the place: WTF!!!?? No, that’s not a particularly important or useful saving of water! Stop that! Yeesh!
There is really no point in my trying to save a few gallons of water. My water rates are based upon a bracketed amount, or a range of between X gallons and Y gallons.
My water bill is the same every month. In the winter when I’m not using much it is the same as during the summer when I am watering the garden, washing the cars, etc., bill doesn’t change. Saving water saves no money.
I am on a small water system that gets some of the best water I have ever tasted anywhere, from wells sunk in the cracked basalt of the local hills, and the outflow goes into my drain field in the yard. So I am neither robbing water from some fish or pollution when the water is returned. And those wells are fed by 80 to 100 inches of rainfall per year. They are never in danger of running out.
Besides, if I were to attempt to save water by not flushing the toilet my wife would respond by pouring out all of my beer.
He would pee several times in the afternoon/evening and then flush the toilet just before going to bed. Why waste a gallon of water flushing a few ounces of pee?