Summary:

The paper presents results of direct investigations of water consumption conducted for the period of one year in two rural households in the villages of Włostowice and Stanisławice in the malopolskie province. The first analyzed household had a typically farmer character, whereas the second one was a typical urban household. Both household used exclusively tap water, discharged their domestic sewage into the combined sewer system and were characterized by similar standard furnishing in water supply and sewage disposal appliances. The conducted analysis of water consumption rate revealed lower water consumption by a rural household in comparison with the other of urban character, despite the fact that the first consisted of a higher number of inhabitants and was running plant and animal production. Mean water consumption per convertible inhabitant over the whole period of investigations in this household was 86.1dm³· PM^-1·d^-1, whereas at Stanisławice household it amounted to 129.91dm³· PM^-1·d^-1. Irregularity of water intake confirmed so called weakly cycle. The largest water consumption by both households was registered on Saturday and the lowest on Tuesday. On all days of the week, except Tuesday, water consumption by the household in Stanisławice was the higher than by the Włostowice household. Two peaks in water intake: morning and evening were registered for the Włostowice household in each month. In all months, except September and December the morning peak was characterized by a higher hourly water consumption than the evening one. In the household in Stanisławice it proved impossible to identify peaks for water intake. Analysis of irregularity of daily water consumption for the whole period of research revealed that N_d values for both analyzed households were very similar, i.e. 3.56 and 3.49. A most diversified hourly irregularity of water consumption was observed in both households during the investigated period. Hourly irregularity coefficient computed for the day with maximum water consumption was 2.3 for the household in Włostowice and 8.9 in Stansiławice. So called additional purposes have a considerable influence on irregularity of water consumption in rural households. In the case of analyzed households additional purposes comprised: farm animal husbandry, lawn and crop watering and car washing.