The water utility company in Edmonton, Canada, has published an incredible graph showing water consumption (read: toilet flushes) during the Olympic gold medal hockey game versus the United States.

It's astounding.

EPCOR published the graph on the heels of news reports saying that up to 80 percent of Canadians were watching the game. (If you missed it, Canada won in sudden death overtime.)

The finding: yes, everyone got up to use the restrooms in between the three periods of the game.

The shock value: yes, all that simultaneous flushing shows up in a big way on a usage chart.

The lesson: smart technology can help utilities optimize water use to handle such massive spikes.

[via PatsPapers]

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com