Residential water consumption in South East Queensland, Australia: using smart technology and participant involvement as a means to an end use

Abstract

Water end use data can be used in the development of relevant and effective water policy such as the identification of correlations between water behaviours and key socio-demographic subsets within a population. This study used a mixed method combination of smart metering technology and participant involvement to disaggregate residential water end uses for 252 households in selected regions in South East Queensland. Water end use consumption data is described along with some relationships between usage and stock efficiency and socio-demographic factors. Results show that changing to efficient washing machines significantly reduces household consumption; and a there is a trend for high water consumption for older occupants, lower income and smaller-sized households. The paper concludes with some comments on the future direction of this research study.