Water Consumption What Does It Mean

Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle introduced Eco Footprints into lots and neighborhoods. With the introduction of Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle came a new rating system for items your sims use in the homes each day. You now see a "Water Consumption Rating" under items that use water and a "Power Consumption Rating" under items that require electricity to run. The scale runs from 1 to 10 depending on how efficient the item is, choosing to use energy and water efficient items can impact your sim's bills.

This article will go over how the overall Billing System works and how the Water Consumption Rating and Power Consumption Rating systems work and play into the overall billing system that was added to the game with the introduction of Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle.

Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle is a Sims 4 Expansion pack that centers around the environment and your sims coming together through neighborhood action plans to make change. The expansion pack was highly anticipated by the Sims community because it included the first ladder to be added to the game (a base game ladder was added later), and it includes storage container wall papers, flooring, and ceiling patterns that were sadly excluded from the earlier tiny living pack.

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle introduced Eco Footprints* which are unique to each lot and neighborhood. You can either have a Green, Neutral, or Industrial footprint depending on your sim's lifestyle. The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle neighborhood Evergreen Harbor is very unique because it has extra neighborhood action plans that can change the entire look of the neighborhoods. Both your energy and water consumption will be used to calculate your sim's footprint and will have an effect on your sim's neighborhood.

*Check out this guide to learn more about the Eco Footprint system.

Billing system

When Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle was first introduced there was an update to the Sims 4 billing system. Every week you will have to pay bills based on your sim's lot value and the amount of power and water consumed. Prior to the update the bills your sim received seemed somewhat arbitrary and you didn't have a way of tracking what is making an impact on your sim's bills each week.

Now you can know exactly what is affecting your sim's bills and you can even make money by selling utilities back to the grid. If you happen to generate more water or power than you use you can sell it back to the grid for a slight profit.

To view your bills you can click on your sim's mailbox and choose "Show Bill Information." You will see that there is a break down of your bills giving you an estimate of what you will owe and then there is a break down of how much power and water you are using or generating. You can select to auto sell your power and water each week or you can store it for your sim to use later.

The lot taxes you pay each week depends on how much your lot is worth. That includes the amount all your objects inside your home are worth too. So if you start to upgrade your sim's lifestyle with the best objects you will owe more in lot taxes each week.

Water Consumption Rating

Certain objects that require water such as showers, sinks, or hot tubs will have a "water consumption rating." This ranges on a scale of 1 to 10 and the higher the rating the more efficient the object is with water. If you have more efficient objects then they will require less water to run.

You can see the objects water consumption rating in build/buy mode. If you hover over an object you will see it has a small description and under that it has multiple stats including a water consumption rating. If you hover over an object and there is no water consumption rating, that particular object does not require any water to use and won't have any effect on your water bill.

Essentially the higher the water consumption rating is the less water is required for that object to work. This can also help save you money on your water bill each week. However, I've noticed that many of the more efficient objects tend to be the more expensive ones, and when you have the more expensive objects the higher the lot taxes are. This can almost negate the savings you get on your water bill.

The more efficient objects really help if you are trying to be successful with the Off the Grid lot challenge which is discussed in more detail below. If you are looking to save the most on your bills you can easily upgrade objects to make them more energy and water efficient.

Power Consumption Rating

The Power Consumption Rating works similar to the Water Consumption Rating. It is on the same 1 to 10 scale and the more power efficient the object is. You can also choose to upgrade your objects to make them more efficient and save your sim the most money on their weekly bills.

Your power consumption and water consumption will also have an impact on your sim's eco footprint. If you use more efficient objects you are likely to use less power and water which will result in your sim having a greener footprint. The impact your sim's footprint has on the environment including your sim's neighborhood footprint is discuss in the article that goes more in depth about Power Consumption and how it works.

Off the Grid Lot Challenge

If you want to switch up your game play, lot challenges are a fun way to add a level of difficulty to your game. The Off the Grid lot challenge is included in the base game and there are many off grid objects you can take advantage of. These off grid objects however do have some limitations if you do not have Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle. You can learn how to navigate the off-the-grid lot challenge by using this guide.

The Off the Grid lot challenge takes your sim's lot off the city utilities. You won't have any electricity or water running to your sim's lot. You will be responsible for generating your own power and water if you want to use regular objects on your lot.

Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle includes many alternative power and water sources that you can add to your lot to power your lot and supply it with water without being connected to city utilities. Now being off the grid is more of a power and water management challenge because you can still use normal every day objects that use electricity and water. You can add windmills, solar panels, or generators to power your sims home with electricity. You can also add dew collectors or a water generator to source water for your lot. It is up to you to know how much power and water you have to generate for your sim to live their normal day to day life.

If you enjoy lot challenges, the Simple Living Lot challenge is similar to Off the Grid. You can learn more about the Simple Living Lot Challenge in this article.

You also gain an additional interaction when you have the off the grid lot challenge on. Your sim will now have the option to "Gather Water" when you click on a fishing sign. Gathering water will give you sim 5 units of water. This can be a great source when your sim is need of a quick shower and you have run out of water. Once you gather water from one source you will have a cool down period that you have to wait until you can gather water again from the same source.

If you don't have enough power or water being supplied to your lot at a given moment, your sim can't use certain objects that require either electricity or water. Unless you are using exclusively off grid objects, your sim won't have access to a computer, lights, stove, showers, and many more necessary objects until they can generate more power and water.