Water consumptions in public schools

Water consumption per user in non-residential buildings is still a very complicated issue for engineers and designers in the process of analyzing water demand and water management. It is easier to design for residential units than for public buildings, as you never know exactly how many users will access the building daily, you can just estimate the number. Our goal is not to set certain and fixed numbers, as they probably will never exist, but to analyze the data we gathered through time and to try to get to an approximation of water usage in public schools connected to building occupants. This research integrates quantitative data of water consumption through water metering and historical data about users in buildings. Six hundred buildings have been monitored over a period of 5 years (2005 e 2010).We focused on consumptions for 3 types of schools: Nurseries (0-3 years old children), Kindergartens (3-6 years) and Elementary Schools (6-11 years). Finally we studied how they are linked to building occupants on a daily consumption rate. The results are that the rational basic demand for water is estimated as 48 liters per pre-school student per day and 18 liters per elementary school student per day. Moreover younger children use more water on a daily basis than elementary school students, as they need more services, such as laundries and kitchens, whereas older students consume water mainly in restrooms.