IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i19p8369-d1486264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Assessment of Harvesting Rainwater and Air-Conditioning Condensate Water in Multi-Family Residential Buildings under Various Conditions in Israel—A Simulation Study

Author

Listed:
  • Tamar Opher

    (Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200000, Israel)

  • Eran Friedler

    (Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200000, Israel)

Abstract

The environmental impacts and water savings of different configurations of non-potable domestic water use (toilet flushing and laundry), sourced from rainwater harvesting (RWH) and air-conditioning condensate water (ACWH), in multi-family buildings in Israel are examined. Two building types differing in specific roof areas, and three climatic sub-regions were modeled. RWH satisfied 23 and 46% of the water demand for toilet flushing and laundry in high-rise and low-rise buildings, respectively. Air conditioning is used almost daily during Israel’s hot and dry summers. Hence, the combined RWH-ACWH system saved 42 and 64% in high- and low-rise buildings, respectively. Displacing desalinated seawater, a significant water source in Israel, with alternative water sources lowered the environmental impacts with an increase in storage, up to a certain volume, beyond which impacts started rising. The same infrastructure is used during winter for RWH and for ACWH during summer; thus, combining the two exhibits significant water savings, with marginal extra costs while lowering the environmental impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Tamar Opher & Eran Friedler, 2024. "Sustainability Assessment of Harvesting Rainwater and Air-Conditioning Condensate Water in Multi-Family Residential Buildings under Various Conditions in Israel—A Simulation Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-20, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:19:p:8369-:d:1486264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8369/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/19/8369/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Igor Catão Martins Vaz & Rodrigo Novais Istchuk & Tânia Mara Sebben Oneda & Enedir Ghisi, 2023. "Sustainable Rainwater Management and Life Cycle Assessment: Challenges and Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-21, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      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:16:y:2024:i:19:p:8369-:d:1486264. 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.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.