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Using Condensed Water of Air Conditioners for Toilet Flushing: A Case Study in Brazil



Author(s)

Celso Silva Bastos and João Luiz Calmon

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DOI:10.17265/1934-7359/2013.01.012

Postgraduate Program in Civil Engineering, Technology Center, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória 29000-000, Brazil

Within the concept of sustainable construction, with sensible and conscious use of finite natural resources, every effort to save and reuse raw-materials is considered an important step to be adopted in buildings, from project, implantation and construction to operation and maintenance throughout their lifecycle. This study aims at showing the application of a system that reuses condensed water drained from air-conditioner evaporators (which are usually disposed of), and a plan to use this water for toilet flushing, reducing consumption of treated water bought from water companies. The authors verified that each air-conditioner specified in the project of a commercial building—used as reference here—produces 4.8 L of water per hour of operation. This result in a daily accumulated volume of 4,290 L, which represents a significant part of the amount needed to supply all the toilets in the building. A water capture system located at a strategic intermediate floor would be able to store this water and pump it into a special reservoir on the roof of the building, to be distributed into toilet flush pipes. By applying this technology, the authors seek to considerably reduce the expected treated water consumption and consequently decrease water bill costs.

Water reuse, air-conditioner, toilet flush.