Water Budget Tool

The WaterSense Water Budget Tool can be used to comply with section 4.1.1, Landscape Design, of Version 1.2 of the WaterSense New Home Specification (PDF) (19 pp, 2250 K, About PDF) or to ensure a measure of efficiency and regional suitability for the amount of water applied to a landscape based on local climate data. Although use of the tool is not a requirement under Version 2.0 of the Homes Specification, it may still be useful in helping to design water-efficient landscapes.

The Water Budget Tool is available as an excel tool (xlsx)(Version 1.04 released June,2020. 1.18 MB). Unfortunately EPA is no longer able to support the web application version of the tool.

Help Using the Water Budget Tool

• Water Budget Quick Start Guide (PDF)(4 pp, 853 K, About PDF)—Serves as an easy to use guide for first time users of the tool.
• Water Budget Approach (PDF)(14 pp, 482 K, About PDF)—Contains information on how to use the water budget tool and how the tool was developed.
• Peak Watering Month Data Finder - Data from the finder is included in the water budget tool. This page explains the source of data and allows you to find the peak watering month for your zip code.
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