Reliability and Economic Analysis of a Rainwater-Harvesting System for a Commercial Building with a Large Rooftop Area

Abstract

The problem of water shortages faced by many countries including the country that having sufficient water source needs to be provided a practical engineering solution. The reliability analysis of rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) installed at the commercial building of AEON Taman Universiti located in Johor Barhu city of Malaysia was based on the rainfall pattern, rainwater use and rainwater storage tank. The economic analysis using the net present value (NPV), return on investment (ROI) and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) was performed to assess the optimal management of RWHS installed during the period of construction and retrofitted after the operation of commercial building. The results showed that the balance of water supply and demand is reliable to implement the RWHS and the optimal management of 1000-m 3 RWHS tank installed during the construction could be more promising than that retrofitted after the operation of AEON Taman Universiti commercial building. The operation of RWHS installed during the construction of building is obviously more feasible due to the values of NPV, ROI and BCR tend to be high. The reliability and economic analysis of RWHS installed during construction and that retrofitted after operation of commercial building demonstrated the benefit of RWHS installation will contribute to the future of building design for achieving an effective water management.

Self-powered PtNi-polyaniline films for converting rain energy into electricity

“…22 Therefore, a promising strategy to break this impasse is to design new materials and/or technologies to harvest rain energy for supplementing the electricity production situation. 23,24 Following this line of thought, a feasible strategy for harvesting energy in rainy environments has been realized by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) material made by an easy hotpressing method, which opens up a novel era for the capture and applications of rain energy. 25 In this way, the actual yielded electrical signals can be collected, including currents over microamperes and voltage of hundreds of microvolts, and further power output under simulated rain.…”

“…22 Therefore, a promising strategy to break this impasse is to design new materials and/or technologies to harvest rain energy for supplementing the electricity production situation. 23,24…”