Average metered home uses up to 383 litres of water per day

The average household is using up to 383 litres of water per day, according to the latest figures provided to the CSO.

Average metered home uses up to 383 litres of water per day

The CSO requested information from Irish Water to compile its figures — the latest data relate to 2015 usage.

According to the CSO, “the average consumption per meter per day in 2015 varied from 274 litres to 383 litres”.

This average varied because of a small number of households which consumed large amounts of water.

“Typically high consumption is due to a leak,” states the CSO report.

A total of 96.6% of metered consumers used 69% of the total water consumption in 2015.

These customers all came under the threshold of using less than 1,000 litres per meter per day.

However, at the much higher threshold of use, of up to 10,000 litres per meter per day, 99.7% of this group used 88% of the water in the higher bracket, meaning 0.3% accounted for 12% of total water consumption.

This higher threshold relates to areas where there were leaks.

However, when all data for 2015 is included, the median of daily meter consumption varied from 245 litres per meter per day at the 1,000 litres threshold to 252 litres per meter per day.

In a set of data, the median is the figure in the middle, where half the numbers are lower and half the numbers are higher, whereas the average is the total divided by the number of items in that set.

In this case, the difference between the average and the median water use gives an indication of the extent of high consumption because the median is less influenced by the small number of meters with high consumption.

In relation to what was included in the data, only metered use was covered. Apartments, many group water schemes, and abstractions from wells were not included.

Furthermore, throughout the course of the year, the number of actual water meters fluctuated as more were being installed across the country.

Nationally, there were 519,781 domestic water meters in January 2015, and by December 2015, that figure stood at 764,319.

The CSO also gave a breakdown of usage by month and by county.

The average monthly consumption varied from 368 litres per meter per day in November to 402 litres in March.

When it came to counties, Cavan had the lowest monthly average of 288 litres in March 2015 while Longford had the highest monthly average of 474 litres in June 2015.

In Cork, the average consumption in litres per meter per day was 427.

The CSO also carried a table comparing the trends in usage between 2014 and 2015.

In both years the median consumption was 246 litres per meter per day.

There was a small increase in mean consumption from 381 litres in 2014 to 383 litres per meter per day in 2015.

The data used to compile the average and median use figures were received by the CSO from Irish Water in response to a request made under the Statistics Act, 1993.

Irish Water then provided monthly files of meter readings to the CSO.

Water meters were “typically read using drive-by technology”, the CSO pointed out.

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