Sustainable Alternative Water Sources Use for Lowering …
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4 Experiment Design and Methodology Settings
The project used for this study includes the area of two pavilions (BlockD and Block-G) next to the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Sustainability—Labiotecs/Ifes—Campus Vitória, which is integrated with nature, where teaching, research and extension activities are carried out, such as composting and minimization of organic waste. The roof area and detailed information about the rooms
of both pavilions covered by the experiment were collected from the physical plant
archives of the Vitória campus, obtained together with the Engineering and Maintenance Coordination of the Institution. The dimensions and area of the gardens
near the Labiotecs were obtained by practical survey with technical measurement
instruments.
A survey was conducted on the use of each room in the corridors covering the
study. Information on the number of people per room, number of devices, power
and frequency of use were collected in order to obtain a standard of use of the air
conditioners.
An inspection of the roof of Block-D was carried out in September 2016 to identify
rain gutters and pipes, as well as obstructions along the flow path that can lead to
decreasing discharge of the drainage system or changes in the quality of collected
water.
According to Tomaz (2009), it is necessary to know the specific consumption
by all activities to determine the viability of the use of stored water, since certain
activities require a higher or lower level of potability for the system to be efficient.
Based on the subjectivity of the employees’ answers about water consumption in
the Institution, we chose to use the consumption by area presented in the technical
bibliography.
The main methodological steps are summarized as below:
• Diagnose the study area to determine potential sustainable water sources for collection and drainage, and reservoir location.
• Estimate the volume of rainwater through the characterization of the rainfall regime
of Vitória.
• Estimate the volume of water produced by the air conditioners located in the study
area.
• Analyze the collected water quality in relation to total coliform parameters, free
residual chlorine, apparent color, pH, total suspended solids and turbidity in the
laboratory, separately for rainwater and air conditioners.
• To size and study the technical and economic viability of a system for collecting
and using rainwater and air conditioning devices.
To obtain the rainfall intensity, it is a very usual way to express the intensityfrequency-frequency-IDF relations, which are expressions obtained from frequency
distribution adjustments. For our case, the city of Vitória, the following IDF equation
was used:
825
4 Experiment Design and Methodology Settings
The project used for this study includes the area of two pavilions (BlockD and Block-G) next to the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Sustainability—Labiotecs/Ifes—Campus Vitória, which is integrated with nature, where teaching, research and extension activities are carried out, such as composting and minimization of organic waste. The roof area and detailed information about the rooms
of both pavilions covered by the experiment were collected from the physical plant
archives of the Vitória campus, obtained together with the Engineering and Maintenance Coordination of the Institution. The dimensions and area of the gardens
near the Labiotecs were obtained by practical survey with technical measurement
instruments.
A survey was conducted on the use of each room in the corridors covering the
study. Information on the number of people per room, number of devices, power
and frequency of use were collected in order to obtain a standard of use of the air
conditioners.
An inspection of the roof of Block-D was carried out in September 2016 to identify
rain gutters and pipes, as well as obstructions along the flow path that can lead to
decreasing discharge of the drainage system or changes in the quality of collected
water.
According to Tomaz (2009), it is necessary to know the specific consumption
by all activities to determine the viability of the use of stored water, since certain
activities require a higher or lower level of potability for the system to be efficient.
Based on the subjectivity of the employees’ answers about water consumption in
the Institution, we chose to use the consumption by area presented in the technical
bibliography.
The main methodological steps are summarized as below:
• Diagnose the study area to determine potential sustainable water sources for collection and drainage, and reservoir location.
• Estimate the volume of rainwater through the characterization of the rainfall regime
of Vitória.
• Estimate the volume of water produced by the air conditioners located in the study
area.
• Analyze the collected water quality in relation to total coliform parameters, free
residual chlorine, apparent color, pH, total suspended solids and turbidity in the
laboratory, separately for rainwater and air conditioners.
• To size and study the technical and economic viability of a system for collecting
and using rainwater and air conditioning devices.
To obtain the rainfall intensity, it is a very usual way to express the intensityfrequency-frequency-IDF relations, which are expressions obtained from frequency
distribution adjustments. For our case, the city of Vitória, the following IDF equation
was used: