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Rainwater tanks have become popular in large Australian cities due to water
shortage and greater public awareness towards sustainable urban
development. Rainwater harvesting in multi-unit buildings in Australia is less
common. This paper investigates the water savings potential of rainwater tanks
fitted in multi-unit residential buildings in three cities of Australia: Sydney,
Newcastle and Wollongong. It is found that for multi-unit buildings, a larger
tank size is more appropriate to maximise water savings. It is also found that
rainwater tank of appropriate size in a multi-unit building can provide
significant mains water savings even in dry years. A prediction equation is
developed which can be used to estimate average annual water savings from
having a rainwater tank in a multi-unit building in these three Australian cities.
Introduction
Australia is one of the driest inhabited continents on earth with highly variable
rainfall. Although Australia has one of the highest per capital dam storage
volumes in the world, reliability of water supply in most Australian cities is
being questioned in recent years due to on-going droughts, climate change and
increased public awareness towards water and environment. Water authorities
in Australia are desperately looking for alternative sources of water including
rainwater tanks in addition to recycling grey water, wastewater and use of
desalination plants. Rainwater tanks have been a common water supply system
in rural Australia for many years (EHAA, 1999). In 2007, 19.3%, or slightly more
than 1.5 million households, reported a rainwater tank as a source of water
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). This was an increase from 17.2% in
March 2004 and 15.2% in June 1994. In recent years, rainwater tanks have reemerged as an important alternative source of fresh water in Australian cities.
Rainwater tank is an important component of water sensitive urban design
(IEAust, 2006), which is a sustainable urban design practice. Rainwater tanks
can savemains water significantly, provide on-site detention and reduce
treatable urban runoff volume. The Building Sustainability Index (referred to as
BASIX) has been introduced by New South Wales Department of Planning in
Australia (NSWDP, 2005). It is a web-based tool that measures the potential
performance of new residential dwellings against sustainability indices. BASIX
requires all new houses in New SouthWales to save at least 40% potable water
than the average one by adopting various water savings techniques including
installation of rainwater tanks.
There have been notable researches on rainwater tanks in Australia which have
demonstrated that rainwater tanks can provide significant mains water savings
(Coombes et al., 1999; Coombes and Kuczera, 2003; Chanan and Woods, 2006;
Marks et al., 2006; Khastagir and Jayasuriya, 2010; Tam et al., 2010). Most of
the local councils in Australia encourage installation of rainwater tanks.
However, there have been limited researches on rainwater tanks in multi-unit
buildings/developments in Australia. As reported by Australian Bureau of
Statistics (2010), over one-quarter (25.9%) of separate houses had rainwater
tanks installed, as opposed to only 6.2% of semi-detached or townhouses.
Ghisi et al. (2009) evaluated the potential for potable water savings using
rainwater for washing vehicles in petrol stations located in Brasilia in Brazil.
They found that the average potential for potable water savings using
rainwater is 32%. Cheng and Liao (2009) presented a method of creating
rainfall zones in northern Taiwan based on standardised rainfall data which
would enhance rainwater harvesting applications. Tam et al. (2010)
investigated cost effectiveness on the use of rainwater tanks for Australian
residential environment. Seven cities were examined and it was found that
using rainwater would be an economical option for households in Gold Coast,
Brisbane and Sydney.Khastagir and Jayasuriya (2010) presented a novel
methodology and a relationship for optimal sizing of rainwater tanks for
Melbourne city in Australia considering the annual rainfall at the geographic
location, the demand for rainwater, the roof area and the desired supply
reliability. Imteaz et al. (2009) presented water savings from two large
underground rainwater tanks in Melbourne city based on recorded daily rainfall
data and irrigation water use. They found that these tanks are quite effective in
savings water in wet, average and dry years.
For a multi-unit building, space for large rainwater tanks may be limited.
However, it might be argued that if water savings is given higher priority, space
for rainwater tank would not be a problem. For example, rainwater tank can be
placed along the back fences of the house (say 0.50 m wide, 1.2 m high tank).
Also, there have been examples that rainwater can be stored in foundation of
the building, e.g. modular water POD storage system (RemTec, 2007). Also,
instead of using a single large tank, a number of smaller tanks connected in
series can be adopted. Rainwater tanks can be incorporated with the
landscaping of multi-unit development projects with respect to size, location,
shape and colour to make rainwater harvesting system aesthetically pleasing.
Study area and data
For this study, three cities were selected from the east coast of New South
Wales in Australia: Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong. One rainfall station with
long record was selected from each of the cities as shown in Table 1 and daily
rainfall data were obtained from Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The study
considers four different usages of water from rainwater tank: (a) toilet flushing,
(b) laundry, (c) hot water (shower, laundry and kitchen) and (d) outdoor
irrigation. The adopted average water demand values for these usages are
shown in Table 2, which were based on Sydney Water recommended demand
rates. Irrigation water demand varies with the season of the year, with 50%,
20%, 10% and 20% of total outdoor water use was assumed to be occurring in
summer, autumn, winter and spring, respectively.
Depending on the individual council requirements and preferences of the
owners, a multi-unit building would have different features characterised by
factors such as ratio of roof to site area, floor levels and ratio of pervious to
impervious areas. This study assumes a multi-unit single storey residential
building with the ratio of roof to site area of 0.5, a different ratio would affect
the irrigation water usage and hence the efficiency of a rainwater tank. The
roof/floor area of individual unit in a multi-unit single storey building would vary
ranging from typically one bed room to three bed rooms units. It seems to be
reasonable to assume that 1, 2 and 3 bed room units would have roof areas of
50 m2, 75 m2 and 100 m2, respectively, i.e. an average roof area of 75 m2 per
unit assuming that there would be equal numbers of 1, 2 and 3 bed room units
in the development. It also seems to be reasonable to assume that 1, 2 and 3
bed room units on average would occupy 1, 3 and 4 persons, respectively,
which gives an average occupancy rate of 2.6 persons per unit which is
equivalent to about 30 m2 roof area per person. A different occupancy rate
would produce a different water savings rate from having the rainwater tank;
however the assumed occupancy rate would provide a reasonable result on
water savings from having rainwater tanks.
Method
In this study, a continuous simulation type water balance model was developed
on a daily time step. The basic idea underlying the model is that the rainfall
falling on a roof area initially discharges to a first flush device and then to the
rainwater tank. Water is drawn from the rainwater tank for intended usages. If
the water level in the rainwater tank goes below a set minimum value, the tank
is topped up with mains water to keep a minimum volume of water in the tank,
which was taken to be 5% of the tank volume in this study. When the rainwater
tank is full, the excess rainwater entering into the tank overflows into the street
drainage system. Ten different tank sizes (10 kL, 20 kL, 30 kL, 40 kL, 50 kL, 60
kL, 70 kL, 80 kL, 90 kL and 100 kL) and five different roof areas (500 m2, 1000
m2, 1500 m2, 2000 m2 and 2500 m2) were considered.
Results
Fig. 1 shows average annual water savings resulting from a rainwater tank for
various roof areas in Sydney which shows that for smaller roof areas, an
increase in rainwater tank size does not increase the water savings as much as
for larger roof areas. For example, for roof area of 500 m2, increase in tank size
from 10 kL to 50 kL results in an increase in average annual water savings by
36%; however, for 1500 m2 roof area, the same tank size increment results in
an increase in annual water savings by 100%. This is due to the fact that for
smaller roof area increasing the tank size does not have as great an effect as
for larger roof area because for small roof area the tank does not fill and
overflow as often as for larger roof area. Fig. 1 also shows that for a given tank
size, average anual water savings increase with increasing roof area as
expected; however, this rate of increase is relatively higher for larger tank sizes
as evidenced by the increasing gradient of the individual curve (which
represents a particular tank size) with increasing tank size. For smaller tanks
increasing the roof area does not have as great an effect as for larger tanks
because for larger tanks the tank does not fill and overflow as often as for
smaller tanks. The rainwater that flows from the roof to the tank is more
effectively collected and used when the tank is larger.
was found to be 1204 mm (based on the data from Sydney Observatory Hill
Station). The annual rainfall in Sydney during two recent drought years 2002
and 2004 are 860 mm and 995 mm, respectively, which are 71% and 83% of
the longterm annual average rainfall. For a 70 kL tank size, the mains water
savings achievable for these two years (2002 and 2004) are 37% and 42%,
respectively, which shows that even in drought years, a notable proportion of
mains water savings can be achieved by having a 70 kL rainwater tank in the
above multi-unit residential development. In Table 5, the reported annual water
savings were calculated using the daily rainfall data of the corresponding year
and the annual rainfall values here were used to identify the drought years.
Table 5 shows that ratio of annual water savings has nearly complete
correspondence with ratio of mean annual rainfalls in years 2002 and 2004.
Conclusions
This paper examines the water savings potential from having rainwater tanks in
multi-unit buildings in three cities of Australia: Sydney, Newcastle and
Wollongong. It has been found that a larger tank size is more appropriate to
maximise water savings in multiunit building. Rainwater tanks can provide
significant water savings even in relatively dry years. It is also found that water
savings in any given year from rainwater tanks have direct correspondence
with the annual rainfall of the corresponding year. A prediction equation is
developed which can be used to estimate average annual water savings from
having a rainwater tank in a multi-unit single storey building in three Australian
cities Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong under some assumptions on-site,
tank and water usage characteristics.
Acknowledgements
Authors would like to thank Bureau of Meteorology for providing the daily
rainfall data and Mr. Michael Jeffrey for his input to the project.
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COMIENZA TRADUCCION
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RESUMEN
Los tanques de agua de lluvia se han hecho populares en las grandes ciudades
de Australia debido a la escasez de agua y la creacion de una mayor conciencia
pblica hacia el desarrollo urbano sustentable. La recoleccion de aguas
pluviales en los edificios de unidades mltiples en Australia es menos comn.
En este trabajo se investiga el potencial de ahorro de agua de los tanques de
nivel del agua en el tanque de agua de lluvia desciende por debajo de un valor
mnimo establecido, el tanque se rellena con agua de la red para mantener un
volumen mnimo de agua en el tanque, que fue tomado como un 5% del
volumen del tanque en este estudio. Cuando el depsito est lleno de agua de
lluvia, el exceso de agua de lluvia que entra en el tanque se desborda en el
sistema de drenaje de la calle. Diez diferentes tamaos de tanques (10 KL, 20
KL, 30 KL, 40 KL, 50 KL, 60 KL, 70 KL, 80 KL, 90 KL y 100 KL) y cinco zonas de
techo diferentes (500 m2, 1000 m2, 1500 m2, se consideraron 2.000 m2 y
2.500 m2).
Resultados
La figura 1 muestra el ahorro promedio de agua anual resultando de un tanque
de agua de lluvia para las diversas reas de techo en Sydney, que muestra que
en techos con superficie ms pequea, un aumento en el tamao del tanque
de agua de lluvia no aumenta el ahorro de agua tanto como en techo con
superficies mas gradnes. Por ejemplo, para el techo con un rea de 500 m2, el
aumento en el tamao del tanque de 10 kL a 50kL resulta en un aumento de
ahorro promedio de agua anual en un 36%; sin embargo, para el techo con un
rea de 1500 m2, los mismos resultados de incremento del tamao del tanque
en un aumento en el ahorro anual de agua en un 100%. Esto es debido a que el
techo rea mas pequea el aumento del tamao del tanque no tiene un efecto
tan grande como un techo con rea mas amplia, porque para el techo con rea
pequea no llena el tanque y el techo con rea mas amplia presenta
desbordamiento frecuentemente. Fig. 1 Tambin muestra que para un tamao
de tanque dado, el promedio de ahorro de agua anual aumenta como se
esperaba con el aumento de rea del techo; sin embargo, esta tasa de
aumento es relativamente mayor para los tamaos de tanque ms grande
como se evidencia por el aumento del gradiente de la curva individual (que
representa un tamao de tanque en particular) con el aumento de tamao del
tanque. Para tanques ms pequeos el rea del techo no afecta tanto como
con tanques ms grandes ya que estos no se llenan y para tanques ms
pequeos el desbordamiento pasa ms a menudo. El agua de lluvia que fluye
desde el techo hasta el tanque es recogida y usada con mayor eficacia cuando
el tanque es ms grande.
Una ecuacin de prediccin fue desarrollada para estimar el promedio de
ahorro de agua anual en un multi-unidad proyecto de desarrollo equipado con
tanques de agua de lluvia en las tres ciudades:
rea en el rango de 500 a 2500 m2, con una tasa de ocupacin de 1 persona
por cada rea de 30 m2 de techo y cuando se utiliza el agua de lluvia para el
lavado higinico, lavandera, agua caliente y el riego al aire libre.
Para investigar los ahorros de agua potenciales al tener un tanque de agua de
lluvia, se llev a cabo un anlisis detallado para desarrollar un ejemplo, con un
terreno de 4000 m2, con un rea de techo de 2.000 m2, rea de riego al aire
libre de 2000 m2 y 70 ocupantes (con 27 pisos @ 2.6 personas por
apartamento). Para este desarrollo, el promedio de ahorro de agua de red
anual para diferentes tamaos de tanques para las tres ciudades se presentan
en la Tabla 3 y en la Fig. 2, que muestran que Wollongong ofrece mayor ahorro
de agua, seguido de Sydney y Newcastle. En general, para este desarrollo, un
tanque de 10 kL ofrece 21% de ahorro de agua de red y un tanque de 50 kL
ofrece 45% de ahorro de agua de red. Tabla 3 tambin muestra que para este
ejemplo, se requiere un depsito de 40 kL para lograr al menos un 40% de
ahorro de agua de red como es requerido por BASIX.
La fiabilidad del tanque de agua de lluvia para proporcionar toda el agua
necesaria (para inodoro, lavadero, agua caliente y el riego al aire libre) se
examin en la Tabla 4, que muestra que el tanque de 10 kL puede proporcionar
toda el agua necesaria para slo el 10% de los das en promedio en un ao.
Para el tanque de tamao de 70 kL, el tanque de agua de lluvia es capaz de
proporcionar toda el agua requerida para aproximadamente el 50% de los das.
La fiabilidad, tal como se define aqu no puede tener mucho significado para la
mayora de los dueos de casa, porque los dueos del tanque no seran
conscientes de en qu da se produce recarga. Su nica preocupacin es la
cantidad total de agua ahorrada. Sin embargo, la fiabilidad sera importante
para el propietario de una casa que se proponga utilizar depsito de aguas
pluviales como su unica fuente de abastecimiento de agua. Adems, en el caso
de fallo de suministro de agua de la red por razones imprevistas, la fiabilidad
da una indicacin de cmo un tanque de agua de lluvia es para satisfacer la
demanda total de agua.
Para el ejemplo desarrollado, la figura 2 muestra los ahorros promedio de agua
anual para diferentes tamaos de tanques, por ejemplo, para un tanque de
tamao de 20 kL, hay un aumento del 100% en comparacin con un tanque de
tamao de 10 kL tanque, lo que aumenta el ahorro de agua por cerca de 1.5
veces. A medida que el tamao del tanque aumenta la tasa de aumento en el
ahorro de agua se reduce, y ms all de 70 kL para tamao de un tanque, la
tasa de aumento en el ahorro de agua es mnimo. Por tanto, en este trabajo se
asume un tanque de 70 kL como el "tamao ptimo" para este ejemplo.
Despus se examin cmo el ahorro de agua se puede lograr an en los aos
de sequa con un tanque de 70 kL. La precipitacin media anual de Sydney es
de 1,204 mm (con base en los datos de la estacin del Sydney Observatory
Hill). La precipitacin anual en Sydney durante dos aos de sequa recientes de
2002 y 2004 son de 860 mm y 995 mm, respectivamente, que son el 71% y el
83% de la precipitacin media anual. Para un tanque de tamao de 70 kL, el
ahorro de agua de red alcanzables para estos dos aos (2002 y 2004) son 37%