Sampled Appliances & Occupancy

The household size and the type of water using appliances varies from household to household. The behavioural model with sampled appliances and occupancy model captures this spatial variability by sampling from probability distributions based on the proportions of household sizes and appliance types.

The Sampled Appliances and Occupancy menu is used to:

  • Enable or disable the sampled appliances and occupancy model for the Behavioural Water Use node.
  • Configure the probability distributions for occupancy and appliances

Enabling Sampled Appliances & Occupancy will disable the Occupants per House and end-use selections for all Behavioural Water Use nodes in the Urban Scenario and a probability distribution will be in place of a specified fixed end-use. For example, when configuring Shower end-use a specific Shower Head Rating will no longer be able to be selected at the node.

Contents

Restrictions

None

Dependencies

The Sampled Appliances & Occupancy requires the Appliances to be configured.

Outputs

Sampled Appliances & Occupancy is an optional configuration for the Behavioural Water Use node.

Properties

PropertyDescription
Occupancy ProbabilitySet the probability distribution (percentage) of houses for each occupancy (0 to 6 people) as either a constant or a time varying distribution
End-use ProbabilitiesSet the probability distribution (percentage) for each appliance type in each end-use category (shower, dishwasher, hand tap, toilet, washing machine, pool) using either a constant or a time varying distribution.

Constraints

The probabilities in each occupancy and end-use section should sum to 1 and cannot sum to greater than 1. If the probabilities sum the less than 1, an error will be reported in the Log Reporter, but the model will still run. If the probabilities sum to greater than 1, an error will be reported, and the model will not run.

User Interface

Sampled Appliances and Occupancy is configured via the Urban Settings menu. By default, Sampled Appliances and Occupancy is disabled and it must be enabled before it can be edited.

The user interface is illustrated in Figure 1 and the options are described in Table 1.

Figure 1. Sampled Appliances and Occupancy menu.

Table 1. Sampled Appliances and Occupancy menu options.
OptionDescriptionAccess
Enable/Disable Sampled Appliances & Occupancy

Enable or Disable the Sampled Appliances & Occupancy menu (disabled by default).

Right-click on the Sampled Appliances and Occupancy menu item to open the drop-down menu and select Enable or Disable
Fixed Probability Distribution

Set the probability distribution (percentage) for each appliance/occupancy type.

As you enter the numbers, the graph will dynamically re-draw, showing you the relative probabilities.

Select the Occupancy or end-use category (Shower, Dishwasher, etc) menu item and enter the probabilities in the table.
Time Varying Probability Distribution

Set the (optional) time varying probability distribution (percentage) for each appliance/occupancy type.

If a time-varying probability distribution is configured, it will override the fixed probability distribution.

As you enter the numbers, the graph will dynamically re-draw, showing you the relative probabilities.

Select the Time Based Distribution sub-menu item for each Occupancy or end-use category (Shower, Dishwasher, etc) and enter the dates and probabilities in the table.
Export/Import Sampled Appliances & OccupancyImport and export Sampled Appliances & Occupancy configurations using the JSON file format.Right-click on the Sampled Appliances and Occupancy menu item to open the drop-down menu and select Export or Import
Export/Import Time Based DistributionImport and export time-varying probability distributions for occupancy and end-uses using the CSV file format.Right-click on the Time Based Distribution sub-menu item to open the drop-down menu and select Export or Import

Technical Details

The application of the Sampled Appliances & Occupancy model to simulate the spatial variability in water use events is described in the behavioural model.

Acknowledgements

This material has been adapted from:

eWater Cooperative Research Centre (2011) Urban Developer User Guide: Urban Developer v1.0.0, eWater Cooperative Research Centre, Canberra, 29 June 2011. ISBN 978-1-921543-40-1