Pioneer attempt of incorporating four variables in generalised equations for predicting water savings through rainwater tanks

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the development of robust equations for calculating expected water savings through rainwater tanks, which are dependent on annual rainfall, rainwater demand, tank size and roof area. The city of Brisbane (Australia) was selected for this purpose. A modified version of the earlier developed daily water balance model, eTank was used to calculate annual water savings under different scenarios using daily rainfall data collected from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Several sets of charts on varying roof size, demand, tank size and annual rainfall were produced from the simulated results. Eventually, the sets of charts were converted to a single generalised equation, each for one of the four selected regions in Brisbane. Results from the developed equations were seen matching with the model (eTank) simulated results. Such equations can be easily incorporated into mobile apps or computer programs to help quick calculations for expected water savings.

KEYWORDS:

• Rainwater tank
• daily water balance
• water savings and weather conditions

Acknowledgements

The second author acknowledges the tuition fee waiver scholarship by the Swinburne University of Technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data used in this study will be made available upon request to the second author.

Authors’ contributions

Monzur Imteaz: Conceptualisation, project management and supervision, final manuscript preparation. Mohammad Saarim Khan: Data collection, analysis, preparing the draft manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The study was not funded by any organisation/funder