New Water Supply Systems for High Rise Buildings

Abstract

Along with constant rise of land prices in densely populated cities, high rise buildings continuously are gushing out. This high rise housing trend increases energy required for water supply and corresponding green gas emission. Therefore, it is necessary to evolve methods which result into energy savings. This paper addresses the issue of appropriate water supply system to be employed for high rise buildings in India. Optimizing energy requirement of water supply systems in high rise buildings is a way towards sustainable development. This paper brings out a case study of a 24 floor residential building wherein the gravity system and Hydropneumatic system and intermediate tank system methods of water supply schemes are compared both on initial capital and running cost, both systems being sized as per National Building Code 2005 guidelines. The Intermediate tank system proves to be economical than gravity and hydro pneumatic system, as it saves energy and having  less operating cost and initial cost than gravity and hydropneumatic. The result shows that the corresponding annual electricity energy can be saved via intermediate break tank which is break point only in system is up to 6.4% than gravity system for scenario considered. It is also concluded that the Intermediate break tank system claims around 6% higher initial cost and 5.2% lower running and maintenance cost than Gravity system. The system in which intermediate tank serve the floors below that tank and OHT serves remaining floors this system saves energy up to 26% than gravity system for 24 story building.