McQuire & Orams house – 6 litres of mains water per person per day!
Surely that's a typo? How can anyone cut their mains water usage to just 6 litres per person per day? Nope, no typo!
Find out how the McQuire & Orams household has really cut their mains water consumption to just 6 litres per person per day.
Summary
Retrofitting a suburban house for water conservation and reuse. The McQuire and Orams family lives in a standard suburban house in West Brunswick, Melbourne. They have implemented a range of simple strategies to conserve and reuse water around the home.
Background
The family started to divert used household water to the garden around 1992, at the same time that they were developing a permaculture-style garden with many fruit and nut trees, vines, vegetables and herbs. The benefits of water reuse were that the plants would benefit from the water, and the soil and microorganisms would help to clean the water. Since those early years they have continued to search for new and better ways of reducing water consumption and reusing water.
What they've done
After being awarded a Smart Water Fund grant to see how far they could go in cutting mains water consumption, the McQuire family installed a greywater recycling system and rainwater tanks at their 1929 Californian Bungalow home in West Brunswick. Now the house supplies its water needs almost entirely through rainwater and recycled water from the site.
The rainwater system uses four rainwater tanks to store up to 20,000 litres of water. The rainwater is used for showers (hot & cold water), the laundry, all water via the hot water system, and a couple of garden taps. Recycled water is used for toilet flushing and as the main source of water for the garden, and the new Envirowater unit installed in the front yard of the house also doubles as a water feature.
Only two of their taps now use mains water, the kitchen cold water tap for cooking and drinking, and the bathroom basin cold water tap for brushing teeth. All the other taps are supplied with either rainwater or recycled water from the site.
The results
The household cut consumption of drinking water to six litres a day per person – 97 per cent less than the average Melbourne household – and still managed to water their thirsty garden comprising over 20 fruit and nut trees.
The family’s water bill for Autumn was just $1.55.
“Half of the water savings we’ve achieved can be implemented by most households at minimum cost,” said Stuart McQuire, “the other half are a little more complicated and will cost more to implement, however they will produce significant savings in the long term.”
More information
The above information was taken from the Smart Water Fund Case Study Lessons for Water Treatment & Storage:
Stuart McQuire’s Sustainable House. Download the Final Project report below for even more information about their water saving achievements.
- Final Project Report to the Smart Water FundAdobe Acrobat (1.6MB)
- savewater! awards® finalist – 2005This household was a finalist in the 2005 savewater! awards®
- Visit the McQuire & Orams house website at www.greenmakeover.com.auFind out more about the water saving achievements of this household at their website. Tours of the house are available for a minimal cost.