Centre for Water Systems, College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, EX4 4QF, United Kingdom.
Sci Total Environ. 2016 Jan 15;541:815-824. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.08.024. Epub 2015 Oct 2.
The rapid pace of urbanisation comes with considerable environmental implications including pressures on already stressed limited water resources. In urban areas, most of the water use is associated with water consumption in buildings. The second largest use of water is via taps. It is often assumed that water taps with low flow rates can contribute to reduced per capita water consumption. However, this is based on very little evidence. This paper presents the synthesis of a 13,000 high resolution observations made to investigate the actual water consumption of innovative (water saving) electronic taps and conventional mixer taps. High resolution flow-meters and data loggers were fitted into two washrooms in two different buildings of a higher education institution to record the water use through the basin taps. The recorded data provided information on duration, frequency of use and volume of water consumption per use. The data was helpful in identifying trends in hot and cold water use and therefore can be useful in estimating energy for producing hot water and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Analysis of the observed data suggests that the low flow taps have greater mean water consumption per event than the conventional taps and water consumption is more influenced by user behaviour rather than the technology.
城市化的快速发展带来了相当大的环境影响，包括对已经承受压力的有限水资源的压力。在城市地区，大部分水的使用都与建筑物中的耗水量有关。第二大用途是通过水龙头。人们通常认为低流量的水嘴可以减少人均用水量。然而，这只是基于很少的证据。本文综合了 13000 次高分辨率观测结果，以调查创新（节水）电子水嘴和传统混合水嘴的实际耗水量。高分辨率流量计和数据记录器被安装在一所高等教育机构的两栋不同建筑物的两个浴室中，以记录通过面盆龙头的用水量。记录的数据提供了关于持续时间、使用频率和每次使用耗水量的信息。这些数据有助于确定热水和冷水使用的趋势，因此可以用于估计生产热水的能源和相关温室气体排放。对观测数据的分析表明，低流量水嘴每次事件的平均耗水量大于传统水嘴，并且耗水量更多地受到用户行为的影响，而不是技术。
