Reduced water consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions : A study of the effects of Uppsalahem’s watersavings campaign in 2013

• Main Authors: Zisimopoulos, Dimitrios, Thor, Linnéa, Frisk, Malin
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för teknikvetenskaper 2014
• Subjects: water usage; greenhouse gas emissions; consumption behaviour
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-225601

The purpose of this project is to evaluate the effects of a campaign that Uppsalahem implemented in February 2013, in order to make their tenants consume less water. The result of the campaign is evaluated in terms of reduced water usage and reduced emissions of greenhouse gas related to the heating of the water through district heating. Four different residential areas in urban Uppsala, where Uppsalahem implemented their water saving campaign have been studied. All calculations are done in MATLAB. The results regarding water usage is presented in cubic meters and the greenhouse gas emissions are presented in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents. A sensitivity analysis of the data is performed in order to study natural occurring variances of water consumption over time. In order to determine which parameter has the greatest impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, a sensitivity analysis of the fuel mix used at the district heating power plant is made. The results show that there has been a reduction of water usage since after the campaign was implemented and the sensitivity analysis of the data indicates that there has been an especially large decrease in water consumption between the years 2012 and 2013. Further though, the results contain monthly irregularities in water usage in the different areas. This shows that the reduction of water consumption has not been temporally associated to the campaign, which indicates that the reduction might not be an effect of the campaign. Regarding carbon dioxide emissions, the sensitivity analysis indicates that the kind of fuel mix Vattenfall use at their district heating plant has a much greater impact than the individual water usage behaviors of the tenants.