Alarming visual display monitors affecting shower end use water and energy conservation in Australian residential households

Abstract

Sustainable urban water consumption has become a critical issue in Australian built environments due to the country's dry climate and increasingly variable rainfall. Residential households have the potential to conserve water, especially across discretionary end uses such as showering. The advent of high resolution smart meters and data loggers allows for the disaggregation of water flow recordings into a registry of water end use events (e.g. showers, washing machine, taps, etc.). This study firstly reports on a water consumption end use study sample of 151 households conducted in the Gold Coast, Australia, with a focus on daily per capita shower end use distributions. A sub-sample of 44 households within the greater sample was recruited for the installation of an alarming visual display monitor locked at 40 litres consumption for bathroom showers. All sub-sample shower end use event durations, volumes and flow rates were then analysed and compared utilising independent sample t-tests pre-and post intervention. The installation of the shower monitor instigated a statistically significant mean reduction of 15.40 litres (27%) in shower event volumes. Monetary savings resulting from modelled water and energy conservation resulted in a 1.65 year payback period for the device. Furthermore, conservative modelling indicated that the citywide implementation of the device could yield 3% and 2.4% savings in total water and energy consumption, respectively. Moreover, a range of non-monetary benefits were indentified, including the deferment of water and energy supply infrastructure, reduced resource inflationary pressures, and climate change mitigation, to name a few. Resource consumption awareness devices like the one evaluated in this study assist resource consumers to take ownership of their usage and individually tackle individualistic and/or society driven conservation goals, ultimately helping to reduce the ecological footprint of built environments.

Integrated Assessment of Water Conservation Practices For Sustainable Management Strategies

“…This phenomenon helps us to address the least water savings found in SH program (Table 2.3). Even though SH saves less water than other appliances, the water savings for SH can still contribute to a certain amount of reduction in energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions from water heating (Fidar et al, 2010;Willis et al, 2010).…”

“…Successful water conservation cases through implementations of BMPs have been reported in the USA (i.e. Seattle, San Francisco, Austin and Tampa; Hern, et al, 2008, Mayer, et al, 2004 and Australia (Sydney and Gold Coast; Turner et al, 2004, Willis et al 2010. The BMPs participants are expected to have more than 35 percent of indoor water savings from replacement of high efficiency appliances (showerhead, faucet, aerator, toilet and cloth washer).…”

“…Turner et al (2004) also concluded that targeting participants to low income groups could be beneficial since they can provide high relative water savings. (Turner et al, 2004;Willis et al, 2010) With the pressure of population growth, the stress on environmental resources and the demands for water in Miami-Dade County have increased. The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (MDWASD) initiated a series of programs to promote water conservation by implementing best management practices (BMPs) Lee et al, 2011a;Pathakamuri et al, 2010).…”

The Impact of Demographic Factors, Beliefs, and Social Influences on Residential Water Consumption and Implications for Non-Price Policies in Urban India

“…This behavior could be attributed to the difficulties inherent in judging one's own water use; consumers consistently overestimate their water savings and underestimate their water use [29,30]. However, when consumers are visually reminded of their water consumption, they consume less water overall [31].…”

Framework for Enhancing the Supply-Demand Balance of a Tri-Supply Urban Water Scheme in Australia

“…As a consequence, greater attention has been given to water sustainability in the region [3][4][5], especially with the introduction of restrictions in the use of potable water and the triggering of the potential use of alternative sources of water, such as recycled water or rain water [6], with the outcome being great savings in potable water [7].…”