The impact of excessive water pressure on total domestic water consumption

Summary

The pattern of total domestic water consumption and water losses in residential buildings is presented. The main factors that influence the pattern formation are considered. It is taken into account that water consumption is formed not only as beneficial water use that reflects the actual water demand, but also as water losses including water wastage, nonproductive losses through valves and water leakages. It is shown that beneficial water consumption is associated with natural and physiological aspects; water wastage is determined by socio-economic conditions; nonproductive water losses are mostly formed under the impact of technical factors; whereas water leakages – under the impact of time factor. The relationships obtained during field tests between water flow rate and pressure are presented that take into account water consumption increase because of leakages and nonproductive use in residential sector. On the basis of the relationships the calculated nonproductive water rates and leakages in residential sector caused by excessive pressures at different water consumption patterns and diurnal average are cited as an example. It was stated that the highest nonproductive water use was observed at the maximum water consumption, the lowest nonproductive water use was observed at night (in percentage ratio); whereas in case with water losses – vice versa. The average daily water losses in a building calculated with account of water losses caused by excessive pressures at every floor were up to 40%. Considering the relationship between water flow rates in the distribution network and excessive pressures provides for approximating the estimated hydraulic pressure head in the distribution network to the actual values and improving the efficiency of the optimization measures.

Key words

water saving , excessive head , water leaks , beneficial water use , water wastage and nonproductive water use