Estimation of Actual Water Savings from a Household Rainwater Harvesting System Using MyWell App
Year: 2024
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: The declining access to the renewable fresh water sources is likely to result in inadequate water supply worldwide. Experts have recently tried to identify reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective fresh water supply sources. Hence, a great number of research on water savings suggest the rainwater harvesting system as one of the reliable alternatives to save fresh water. According to studies, a household rainwater harvesting system can supply 12% to 100% of its non-potable water demand based on household size, roof area, rainfall patterns and other relevant factors. The aim of this study is to estimate water savings from a roof-top based rainwater harvesting system. The daily data are collected using MyWell app. This smartphone app is developed under a groundwater monitoring project which allows public in real time monitoring of rainfall, water level, water quality and others. Primarily, this research focuses on water savings for a specific household located in Pendel Hills, a suburb of Greater Sydney region. The study household has a rainwater tank of 5 kL. All the study data from MyWell app and other secondary sources are collected for a one-year period from June 2020 to June 2021. To calculate the water savings, authors have used two approaches- (a) the theoretical approach using ‘Behavioural-Storage model’ and (b) Real-time water demand and supply estimation. This study only considered non-potable uses of the harvested rainwater. The results show that the selected rainwater tank is about to save approximately 6.39 m3 water each month (40% of demand) in the theoretical approach. While the rainwater tank is saving an average of 2.42 m3 /month water in real-time which is only 19.75% of monthly water demand. The results of this study will help to improve rainwater harvesting system performance and will contribute to achieve water related sustainable development goals.
Authors: Shuvra Sikder, Dharmappa Hagare
Institution: Western Sydney University
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Engineering
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4408286999