Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

David E. Rosenberg

Committee

David E. Rosenberg

Committee

Laurie S. McNeill

Committee

Mac McKee

Committee

Gerald Sehlke

Abstract

The thesis develops an integrated approach to model heterogeneous household water and energy end-uses and their linkages. The approach considers variations in behavioral and technological water-and-energy-use factors that affect indoor residential water- and energy-use in the U.S. Here, we use a recent, large, national, disaggregated household dataset of potable hot and cold water end-uses collected from eleven cities. We also use national energy data to estimate heterogeneous energy-uses for household water appliances including toilets, showers, faucets, clothes-washers, and dishwashers. First, probability distributions of water- and energy-use factors are identified, correlated, and compared among study sites. Then Monte Carlo simulations are used to calculate probability distributions for estimated households’ water-and-energy-uses. Finally, linear regressions are used to find the relative effects of water and energy factors on household energy-use. Results show that water and energy distributions among households are heavily skewed, with the largest 14.6% of the users consuming 30.5% and 33.1% of water and energy, respectively. Water heater dispense temperature followed by faucet flowrate have the highest relative effect on household energy-use and should be targeted to reduce household energy use. The approach improves prior homogenous and deterministic water-energy models and can help utilities select and size cost-effective collaborative water and energy conservation actions.

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Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on September 18, 2012.

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