Water use, especially indoor use, in single‐family residences has declined since 1995 and is expected to continue to do so as new technologies enter the market. This conclusion is unavoidable when empirical data from residential end use studies dating back to 1995 are compared. Furthermore, the observed declines in indoor use are not related to economic conditions—the bulk of the data used for the analysis were taken before the 2008 recession. This article presents key data and findings from a 16‐year data collection effort and closely examines changes in water use over that time as well as the potential for additional residential demand reductions in the future. The demand data presented here show patterns in single‐family indoor and outdoor demands and provide a basis for future water supply planning and conservation program design.
Analyzing flow traces from residential water meters enabled researchers to collect precise data about water use by individual fixtures. Precise information about water use patterns can be gathered by analyzing flow traces obtained from residential customer water meters that are fitted with portable data loggers. Flow traces are precise enough that signatures associated with all major water use categories can be identified. For this study, more than 10,000 water use events were recorded, classified, and entered into a database. The technique is both accurate and reliable and can be used to collect time‐specific and disaggregated water use data. Measuring directly instead of inferring measurements from aggregated data is a quick and cost‐effective way to analyze water use patterns and directly assess how conservation measures influence water demand
Water budgets, volumetric allotments of water to customers based on customer‐specific characteristics and conservative resource standards, are an innovative means of improving water‐use efficiency. Once thought to be impractical because of technological constraints, water budgets linked with an increasing‐block rate structure have been implemented successfully by more than 20 utilities. Key issues identified in this examination of water budgets and their potential value to North American water utilities include: different practical approaches to water budget rate structures; the benefits and challenges of these approaches; the potential uses of water budgets during drought; and, important steps in the water budget implementation process.
This article discusses two large‐scale regional efforts, funded by the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR), to effect urban irrigation efficiency and reduce runoff through the installation of smart controllers. California's smart controller programs represent the largest effort to date to distribute and evaluate the effects of weather‐based irrigation‐control technology. The current study reviewed evaluation results from weather‐based irrigation‐controller programs in Northern and Southern California and offers empirical data on the performance of smart‐controller products distributed and installed through different methodologies in an array of residential and nonresidential settings.
This article discusses a study funded by the Water Research Foundation that investigated the relationships among the water conservation behaviors of customers, demographics and other factors, and effective communication. Through guidelines that water agencies can use to design effective, integrated communication approaches aimed at influencing water conservation behavior, the report, Water Conservation: Customer Behavior and Effective Communications, will assist water utilities in designing and implementing social marketing campaigns through three mechanisms that include: sharing informational resources on social marketing; sharing lessons learned from other water utilities; and, sharing research on links between demographics and effective communications for use in designing targeted communications campaigns, particularly when budgets are limited.
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