A critical review of methods used to obtain flow patterns and volumes of individual domestic water using appliances

Abstract

Determining the daily flow rates and water use patterns of specific household fixtures and appliances is important for water use monitoring, deriving effective strategies for water demand management, designing onsite water reuse systems, and efficient planning and investment in the urban water sector. Currently, there are a limited number of publications which address the need to measure flow patterns and volumes of individual household water-using appliances, or which analyze the alternatives to do so. This paper critically reviews and compares different methods of obtaining the specific flow patterns and volumes of water used by individual household water-using microcomponents (i.e. toilet, bath/shower, washbasin, washing machine, kitchen sink, dishwasher, etc.) in order to make recommendations about the appropriateness of these methodologies for various applications.

Keywords::

• domestic water demand
• appliance water use
• flow pattern analysis
• microcomponent water demand
• diurnal flow pattern
• water consumption and prediction

Acknowledgements

Jane Morrison spent a research internship at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Funding

Jane Morrison's internship was funded by the Tim CasgrainTravel Fund for Water ManagementScholarship, through McGill University Canada. This work was partially supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science & Technology of the State of Israel and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) of the Federal Republic of Germany [grant number 02WA1263].