This graphic shows a fairly steady amount of rain over the year ranging from approximately 3-4 inches every month. The driest month in Boston is July with 3.06 inches of precipitation, and with 3.98 inches November is the wettest month.I then looked up Omaha, Nebraska for purposes of this assignment. I found that Omaha has a much larger spread between the low and high amounts as compared to Boston.
The driest month in Omaha is January with 0.76 inches of precipitation, and with 4.57 inches May is the wettest month.Study Area: (20'x50' portion of my workspace - 1,000 s.f.). Estimated occupancy in this 1,000 s.f. area is (1000/150 s.f. per cubicle) 7 occupants.
The average annual rainfall for Omaha, Nebraska is 30.08 inches annually.
(2/3)30.08 = 20.05 inches annually would be the Design Precipitation.
I then consulted table 4.271 - Sizing Rainwater Catchment Areas; A 1,000 s.f. area at a total precipitation of 20 inches annually would yield approximately 9,500 gallons per year.
Water closet calculation: 7 occupants at 1.6 gal/flush X 3 flushes/day X 260 workdays/year (52 weeks x 5 days) would be 8,736 gallons per year.
My office area is situated on the garden level of an eight story residential building. Located in an urban context without landscaping or irrigation needs (property lines are the face of building on all sides). The collected rainfall would be enough to address the toilet water usage of the occupants in our sample office area. This indicates that it should work for the entire footprint of our office space (approx. 11,000 s.f.). Grey water from other sources (i.e. dishwasher, sink and shower) are potential resources which could be shared with resident tenants above us. Resident tenant sources would also come into consideration if we were to study the entire building in which our office resides.
Our cistern size would be 1/4 of our annual water need which would be approximately 2,200 gallons. It would be located in a back of house area of our office in close proximity to the toilets being served.
The following conceptual section shows how this approach could be realized. The key component would be finding the space for the cistern (I am assuming that the sand filter could be located on top of this cistern because of higher ceiling heights).
1 comment:
WATER
Good look at extremes.
Omaha precipitation: very interesting graph. This is almost the exact opposite of Mediterranean precipitation (wet winters and dry summers) – it would interesting to see what Amr’s precipitation in Egypt is for comparison.
A dry Omaha winter and wet spring might make for some severe erosion – is that possible?
Good calculations – sobering that the rainfall can only handle the first of eight floors. One solution: reduce demand with low flow fixtures.
Looking at your section I think you are lucky not to have the daylighting assignment!
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