To further develop the DVGW standards, high-resolution water consumption measurements from more than 200 residential buildings were taken from 12 German water supply companies in the research project “Verbrauchsganglinien”. The data provides information on current key figures on daily and peak demands, the water demand profiles of residential buildings, and forms the basis of stochastic modelling to simulate water consumption profiles and to illustrate future changes in consumption.
Contrary to official forecasts, the reduced water demand raised the question of whether relevant standards need to be amended. As part of the research project, more than 200 high-resolution consumption measurements were taken from domestic water meters and selectively on individual fittings, in the supply areas of 12 different water supply companies. The data was evaluated in terms of daily consumption and peak flow, and reflected in the current standards. Further analyses were performed on regional and seasonal differences and on the influence of small businesses. The analysed peak flow values for the reference times of 5 minutes and one hour (DVGW standard W 406 and 410) were considerably lower compared with the values given in the standards. The peak flows for the reference time of 10 seconds showed only minor deviations and largely confirmed the values given in the standards. Studying regional differences produced higher peak flow values in the new federal states with comparably sized houses. One possible cause is the higher occupancy rate of the measured residential buildings (inhabitant per utilisation unit) in the new federal states. The change in household structure (increase in the number of single households) in cities is a key factor. On the basis of the identified individual usage profiles from the high-resolution consumption measurements at the building level, a stochastic process model was developed by the TU Dresden to simulate water consumption profiles and to map future changes in consumption.
Publications:
Martin, T.; Korth, A.; Schubert, K.: Hochaufgelöste Verbrauchsmessungen bei Kunden [High-resolution customer consumption measurements] Veröffentlichungen aus dem Technologiezentrum Wasser [Publications from TZW] 79, ISSN 1434-5765 (2017)
