Water usage characteristics of household appliances and the potential for water savings

Abstract

A study has been undertaken to quantify appliance water consumption and the effectiveness of various consumer usage techniques and manufacturer design modifications for saving water. Appliances considered are clothes washers and dishwashers. Through a comparison of estimated water savings, the study indicates that the most significant means of saving water are those which are already commercially availablefront-loading machines and suds-saver options for clothes washers, and short-cycle setting? for dishwashers. Water savings ot about 20 to 30 percent are estimated with these features, or about 10 ga_lons for clothes washers and 3 gallons for dishwashers.Several appliance design modifications are also evaluated but do not offer the same level of savings. Water usage characteristics such as supply and discharge flow rates and the effect of supply pressure and cycle selection are presented.

Economic framework for cost-effective residential water conservation decisions

“…4 Charges Unrelated to Consumption as a Percentage of Total Water Bill, by Household Size and Monthly Consumption Based on 30 days/month and on 54.6 gpcd, derived from data in Murray and Reeves , pp . 4 ,21 …”