Sustainable water management in purpose-built student accommodation

Abstract

Abstract Purpose-built student accommodation is a rapidly growing residence type in the United Kingdom with unique water management challenges that include high building occupancy, involvement of multiple stakeholders, and no direct linkage between occupants’ bills and their water use. We report on successful interventions to monitor and reduce significant baseflow that initially accounted for 42% of the annual water demand in three accommodation blocks housing 240 students at Newcastle University. Building-level water consumption monitoring and audits identified faulty, continuously running toilets as the main reason for such high baseflow. Each faulty toilet wasted between 4,800 to 12,000 litres per day of potable water, equivalent to the baseflow corrected water use of between 47 and 106 students, meaning that toilet faults are high impact events in terms of sustainable water management. Subsequent building management, maintenance team, and student occupant engagements reduced baseflows within three years by 46%, resulting in water bill savings five times higher than the monitoring costs. We conclude that rapid identification and repair of faulty toilets supported by smart metering has high water savings potential and low costs in comparison with alternative institutional water efficiency measures such as installing rainwater harvesting systems or ultralow water use appliances. Synopsis: Monitoring and communication interventions cost-effectively reduce significant leakage from toilets in student accommodation.