Reduce Residential Water Use by Focusing on Irrigation

W ould you rather cut your showers back by more than eight hours or skip watering your lawn once?Recent research shows that to use the same amount of water as one irrigation event, you'd need to run the shower for more than eight hours.Although this question is hypothetical, it highlights the value of reducing irrigation and stems from research published by our extension program, H 2 OSAV: Water Savings, Analytics & Verification, at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.The H 2 OSAV program works with utilities and water management districts across the state of Florida to help measurably save water.Our program uses historical metered water use data for more than 22% of the single-family homes in Florida to identify some of the drivers of high water use in the state.To help demonstrate the effect that reducing irrigation can have, our most recent research, How Much Water Am I Using to Irrigate My Yard? highlights the magnitude of water used for a single irrigation event.