How much water do you use in your darkroom?

[Corran]

Just got my annual water bill, first one since owning our house. We are on a community well and are allotted a certain amount of water that is roughly the usage of two adults (according to the USGS), so I was expecting an overage, and we did get that - but we also had a break in our main line earlier this year so that was also a huge issue.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how much water the darkroom uses. I am wondering if any of you know roughly how much your darkroom water usage is. Please of course include relevant info about usage - such as, just film processing, or light/moderate/heavy printing, etc.

I can't be sure how much water we lost from our main line break so I can't really answer this question myself (assuming my wife and I used the "typical" amount), but am now thinking about options for a water usage meter on the input line to my darkroom, just to keep tabs on it. Our overage past "normal" usage levels was about 30,000 gallons, but I've been printing a lot in the last year.

[Sfroza]

The "average" American used 82 gal. per day in their household.

[Vaughn]

The "average" American used 82 gal. per day in their household.

Which is 30,000 gallons per year.

Limited darkroom work right now -- film developing and some platinum printing at home. I typically use standing water baths.

I average 250 cubic feet per month...so that would be 22,500 to 25,000 gallons a year. Just me in the house, and occasional guest(s). Other factors -- no clothes or dish washer. Some watering in the yard from mid to start of Fall.

[Corran]

Correct. Accounting 30k gallons for my wife and I, that is the 60k we are allotted.

As I mentioned, our overage was about 30,000 gallons. I was basically wondering if 30,000 gallons in a year with heavy darkroom usage was bad, or good, or whatever. Just curious. Again, I had a main line break that leaked a LOT of water into the yard before getting fixed, so hard to draw real conclusions in my case. I could start to monitor the water meter in the yard if I wanted to see how much usage happened per month.

[Vaughn]

My info will not help you much, then.

[Tin Can]

This is a great question.

There are many variables, actual usage, water source, location, quality and cost.

My Chicago condo darkroom had water and sewage usage and cost rolled into our assessments. No real way to know my usage. And Chicago for a long time did not meter most users. Just dreamed up a bill, which many protested.

I have been in this small town for 1 year. The town has a very good water supply and it rains often here.

My darkroom is almost ready. By December it will be.

Each user here is metered. The sewage and garbage removal are tied to water usage. Currently I use 60 gallons a day. 1 user. Most is going down the old toilet. I can lower that usage with a new toilet. I don't water plants or lawn. I have installed low flow faucet heads and use water saver on the new washing machine.

I will be closely watching my water usage and I plan to report back here when the darkroom becomes active.

I don't drink my tap water. I buy distilled for under $1 a gallon. Use it for coffee, drinking, cooking. I also use distilled for mixing film/paper chemistry, but wash with tap.

I need to find out if collecting rainwater is legal here. Many places it is illegal to collect water!

[Corran]

A couple of years ago I saw a huge water tank for sale at an estate auction, designed for water storage in a collection system (out west). It got me thinking about collection here and usage in the darkroom, or even in the house in an emergency situation - when we lose power in the neighborhood, our well also therefore does not pump water to homes.

This filter is good for 1 million gallons and is what I use for hiking. It can be used in slow gravity-fed systems, so I've thought about using it in a dual water storage system to provide drinkable water. Or just service the darkroom with water - all provided by our generally healthy rainfall. Another project.

Looking forward to what your darkroom looks like Randy!

[DrTang]

those water collection systems (out west) are mostly used to water the lawns and wash their cars and maybe for laundry and not for drinking water

[EdSawyer]

They are also used for fire suppression issues, some places require you to have a standing storage tank of X number of gallons to be used by the fire department if necessary.

[Graham Patterson]

My processing is done from stock water containers, and my drainage is to a limited size sump. So I probably use < 10 litres in a heavy processing cycle for film or prints. A bit more if I am filling the Jobo bath or doing 20x16 prints. The print washer flow is measurable, and I don't run it if I am not using it. Say 2-3 litres per minute for an hour = 180 litres.

With my current usage, that is maybe 200 litres a month 8-(

A litre is approximately 0.26 US gallons.

My print washer drainage goes to the yard.