IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i5p1659-d148159.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Simulation of Rainwater Harvesting Design and Demand-Side Controls for Large Hospitals

Author

Listed:
  • Lawrence V. Fulton

    (Department of Health Administration, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA)

Abstract

Inpatient health buildings in the United States are the most intensive users of water among large commercial buildings. Large facilities (greater than 1 million square feet) consume an average of 90 million gallons per building per year. The distribution and treatment of water imposes a significant electrical power demand, which may be the single largest energy requirement for various states. Supply and demand-side solutions are needed, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions where water is scarce. This study uses continuous simulations based on 71 years of historical data to estimate how rainwater harvesting systems and demand-side interventions (e.g., low-flow devices, xeriscaping) would offset the demand for externally-provided water sources in a semi-arid region. Simulations from time series models are used to generate alternative rainfall models to account for potential non-stationarity and volatility. Results demonstrate that hospital external water consumption might be reduced by approximately 25% using conservative assumptions and depending on the design of experiment parameters associated with rainfall capture area, building size, holding tank specifications, and conservation efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence V. Fulton, 2018. "A Simulation of Rainwater Harvesting Design and Demand-Side Controls for Large Hospitals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-17, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1659-:d:148159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1659/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1659/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lawrence Fulton & Bradley Beauvais & Matthew Brooks & Scott Kruse & Kimberly Lee, 2020. "Sustainable Residential Building Considerations for Rural Areas: A Case Study," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-25, May.
    2. Tariq Judeh & Isam Shahrour & Fadi Comair, 2022. "Smart Rainwater Harvesting for Sustainable Potable Water Supply in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Lawrence Fulton & Bradley Beauvais & Matthew Brooks & Clemens Scott Kruse & Kimberly Lee, 2020. "A Publicly Available Cost Simulation of Sustainable Construction Options for Residential Houses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    4. Katarzyna Wartalska & Martyna Grzegorzek & Maciej Bełcik & Marcin Wdowikowski & Agnieszka Kolanek & Elżbieta Niemierka & Piotr Jadwiszczak & Bartosz Kaźmierczak, 2024. "The Potential of RainWater Harvesting Systems in Europe – Current State of Art and Future Perspectives," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 38(12), pages 4657-4683, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1659-:d:148159. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.