Brian Heflin, Joshua Rodgers, and Brandon Dodd

Transcription

1 To: Dr. Jim Henry Date: 9/29/2012 From: Brian Heflin, Joshua Rodgers, and Brandon Dodd Subject: Challenger Center Cooling Tower Memo Report Author(s): Brian Heflin, Joshua Rodgers, and Brandon Dodd Procedure Flow Rates of Sinks For this experiment, 150 ml beakers and a stopwatch from a cellular phone were used. The faucet on each sink is turned on so that the maximum flow of water comes through the faucet. Once the faucet is turned on and at maximum flow, the beaker is placed quickly underneath the faucet so that the water collects in the beaker. The stopwatch is started simultaneously when the beaker is placed under the faucet. When the beaker is close to filling completely with water, it is removed from under the faucet and the stopwatch is stopped at this instant. If water overflows from the top of the beaker, that trial must be discarded. The amount of water that is in the beaker along with the time that the beaker was under the faucet (from the stopwatch) is recorded. Three samples are taken from each faucet, and an average and uncertainty for the flow rate for each faucet is determined. The flow rate is calculated by dividing the amount of water in the beaker by the time the beaker was underneath the faucet. The flow rates of sinks are calculated for every sink in the men s bathrooms in the Engineering, Math, and Computer Science (EMCS) building at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (UTC), the sink in the chemical engineering lab on the 1 st floor and the teacher s lounge on the 4 th floor, and the men s bathrooms at Wal-Mart on Brainerd Road. Volume of Water Per Flush During this experiment, gloves should be worn at all times for sanitation purposes. A plunger, tape (or some other method to mark the water level with), and some type of volumetric container for water is needed. A water cooler jug that had marks at each half liter was used for the container for the specific experiment in this report. The volume of water in both the toilets and urinals in the men s bathrooms in the EMCS building were measured. The plunger is placed in the toilet so that no water can drain from the bowl. The toilet is then flushed, causing the water level to rise. This maximum water level is marked on the plunger with tape or another method. Then the plunger is removed and the water in the bowl is allowed to drain. After the

2 water has drained to its original level, the plunger is placed back in the bowl, prevented water exit. Water from the jug is then poured into the bowl until the water level reaches the mark placed on the plunger. The plunger is again removed and the water is allowed to drain. The amount of water that was poured out from the jug into the bowl is representative of the amount of water that the toilet uses for each flush. This amount of water is recorded. The same process is used for the urinals as well. Results Flow Rates of Sinks Flow rates of the sinks in the men s bathroom of the EMCS building along with the sink in the teachers lounge and ENCH lab were found using the procedure outlined earlier. The results are shown in Figure 1. Flow Rate, L/min Flow Rates of Sinks in EMCS Building 1st Floor 2nd Floor 3rd Floor 4th Floor Teachers ENCH Lab Lounge, 4th Floor Figure 1: Flow Rates of Sinks in EMCS Building The lowest flow rate for the sinks in the bathrooms was 6.3 liters per minute, which was found on the second floor. The highest flow rate for the bathroom sinks was 18.6 liters per minute, found on the third floor. It is interesting to note that the sink with the highest flow rate also had the greatest amount of uncertainty (±14.3 L/min). The second highest flow rate was found on the fourth floor at 14.9 liters per minute. Most flow rates for the sinks in the restrooms were around 10 liters per

3 minute. The flow rate of the teacher s lounge sink was 6.9 liters per minute, and the flow rate of the ENCH lab sink was only 5.3 liters per minute. Flow rates were also found for sinks in the men s bathroom at Wal-Mart on Brainerd Road. The results are shown in Figure 2. Flow Rates of Sinks at Brainerd Wal-Mart Flow Rate (L/min) Front Restroom Back Restroom Figure 2: Brainerd Wal-Mart Sink Flow Rates The lowest flow rate found in the sinks at Wal-Mart was 1.7 liters per minute. The highest flow rate was 2.5 liters per minute. With the exception of the sink with the lowest flow rate (1.7 L/min), all of the sinks had flow rates between 2.0 and 2.5 liters per minute. The toilets and urinals flow rates were found by following the procedure above. All the bathrooms on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor were measured. Figure 3. below shows the amount of water lost for the toilets.

4 Figure 3. Toilet Water Loss On each floor of the EMCS the average water leaving each toilet was 5 gallons. The lowest volume was 4.8 gallons and this was found by bathrooms closer to the elevators on the third floor. Below figure 4 shows a significant difference from the toilet data than the urinal data. Figure 4. Urinal Water Loss The urinals loss less water which was expected. The higher amount of water loss was around 4.5 gallons and this was found on the first floor urinals. The minimum water loss was 3.5 gallons and this was found on the far side of the second floor. The urinals ranged in between a 4.6 gallon loss and 3.5 gallon loss of water. Whereas the toilets ranged in between a 5 gallon loss and 4.8 gallon loss of water.

5 Analysis From the results, the flow rates of sinks in the men s bathroom in the EMCS building are significantly higher than the flow rates of sinks measured in Wal-Mart. The sinks at Wal-Mart also have automatic sensors that control the flow of water. The flow rates for the restrooms in the EMCS were compared to LEED standards. LEED, Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design, was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council to provide guidelines to maintaining more environmentally friendly buildings. For school settings, to achieve LEED approval, commercial sinks in lavatories have to use 20% less than the current baseline metric, 2.0 liters per minute. Effectively, each sink would need to have a flow rate of 1.6 liters per minute to be LEED approved. All of the sinks in the bathrooms of the EMCS building do not meet these standards. The results of the water lost from the Men's toilets and urinals in the EMCS building the toilets lose more water than the urinals. The gallons of water loss values for the urinals and toilets in the EMCS were compared to the LEED approval standards. These standards stated that for the urinals they should fall in the range of 1.0 gallons per flush. The EMCS urinals fall in the range of 4.6 gallons per flush and 3.5 gallons per flush. The LEED standards for toilets are in the range of 1.28 gallons per flush or less. There again the EMCS toilets are out of range with LEED standards. The EMCS toilets have almost 4 times more water leaving the toilet than LEED standards would require. To fall in LEED Standards each Urinal would need to have about 1.0 gallons of water leaving and toilets would need to have almost 1.28 gallons leaving. These results show that all the toilets and urinals in the bathrooms of the EMCS building do not meet the LEED standards. Conclusion From looking at the results and the analysis of the sinks and toilet data collected from the EMCS, they are not within in LEED specs. The toilets and urinals are putting out close to four times more water than what is expected by LEED. And the sinks are lower than LEED specs at 1.6 when they should be around 2.0.