THE FIELD TESTING OF A RAINWATER COLLECTOR

摘要

This paper describes some of the results from the preliminary field testing of a rainwater collector installed in a UK house. The rainwater collected from the system was used for WC flushing. The capacity of the collection or storage tank is critical in the design of such systems. Sizing models have been proposed by researchers but none of the models appear to have been verified or refined using field data. The collected data was used to assess the sensitivity of a sizing model to the time interval of the rainfall and WC flushing time series. The analysis confirms sizing models should be based on a maximum time interval of one day. The refinement of models to utilize smaller time intervals such as an hour does not result in a significant increase in accuracy.Rainfall losses from the catchment area were modelled. The inclusion of rainfall loss parameters into sizing models is required but a degree of latitude in their estimation is possible whilst preserving model accuracy.