RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF URBAN RAINWATER HARVESTING FOR THREE TEXAS CITIES

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to inform decision makers at state and local levels, as well as property owners about the amount of water that can be supplied by rainwater harvesting systems in Texas so that it may be included in any future planning. Reliability of a rainwater tank is important because people want to know that a source of water can be depended on. Performance analyses were conducted on rainwater harvesting tanks for three Texas cities under different rainfall conditions and multiple scenarios to demonstrate the importance of optimizing rainwater tank design. Reliability curves were produced and reflect the percentage of days in a year that water can be supplied by a tank. Operational thresholds were reached in all scenarios and mark the point at which reliability increases by only 2% or less with an increase in tank size. A payback period analysis was conducted on tank sizes to estimate the amount of time it would take to recoup the cost of installing a rainwater harvesting system.