Residential, Commercial, and Institutional End Uses of Water

Provides specific data on and analysis of the end uses of water in residential, commercial, and institutional settings across the United States. Includes data on disaggregated indoor and outdoor uses. Data can be used to improve engineering estimates of residential, commercial, and institutional water consumption.

The first report, Residential End Uses of Water (1999), focused on water use in single-family homes. It used advanced data logging technologies to collect water meter reads every 10 seconds. This approach allowed the data to be separated by different types of end use. The study sample included 1,188 houses in 12 locations in North America and was one of the largest end-uses of water studies.

The second report, Commercial and Institutional End Uses of Water (2000), studied water use of commercial and institutional customers. Efficiency benchmark ranges were created for five sub-categories: restaurants, hotels and motels, office buildings, supermarkets, and schools. High-frequency water use data from 24 establishments in these sub-categories were used to support demand estimates.

Research partner: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Published in 1999 and 2000.

See the 2016 update to this project, Residential End Uses of Water, Version 2.