Helping Homeowners Conserve Water through AMI and Other Innovative Approaches Allen Berthold, Research Scientist Kelly Brumbelow, PI Kevin Wagner and Scott Cummings, Co-PI’s

Today’s Presentation Overview of TWRI Texas State Water Planning and Water Shortages Texas A&M University Water Seed Grant AMI Web Portal Research Other Activities

TWRI Purpose Plan, facilitate, and conduct research to aid in the resolution of State and regional water and natural resource related issues Promote technology transfer and dissemination and application of research results Provide for training of scientists and engineers

Texas State Water Plan

Potential Water Shortages Municipal Conservation Projected to meet 10% of future demand Agricultural Water Conservation Projected to meet 16% of future demand Water Reuse Projected to meet 13% of future demand Desalination Projected to meet 2.7% of future demand Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) 1.8% of future water demand

Water Seed Grant Funding from legislature to Texas A&M University Develop innovative technologies to address water shortages Funded approximately 20 projects Collaboration between AgriLife and Engineering

WaterMyYard Program Provides science-based weekly watering recommendations to home owners Requires very little technical knowledge Weekly watering recommendations are sent via email and/or text Tells consumers how long (in minutes) to run their irrigation systems. Program now includes over 64 Texas cities.

2015 Estimated Savings Provided Per Irrigation Zone Water use without WaterMyYard Sprays = 18,648 gallons Rotors = 45,864 gallons Water use with WaterMyYard Sprays = 4,907 gallons Rotors = 11,153 gallons Savings per defined sprinkler zone Sprays = 13,741 gallons ~ $72 Rotors = 34,711 gallons ~ $180 Current Water Rate $5.21/1000

Development of Landscape Irrigation Runoff Mitigation System (LIRMS) Minimizes irrigation water losses from residential or commercial landscapes where automatic irrigation systems are used by detecting runoff & stopping application Testing shows LIRMS could reduce runoff volumes by 40% during a typical 30 minute irrigation application

Creation of an UAV Platform for Detecting Leaks in Irrigation Canals and Municipal Underground Pipelines Goals: Develop commercially viable, leak detection platform using image acquisition & analysis following UAV flights Develop new software for processing imagery 15 years ago, Extension developed a irrigation canal leak detection system with a 94% success rate Used fixed-wing aircraft mounted with multi-spectral sensing system Now adapting & deploying UAV-based system and expanding the methodology to detect leaks in underground pipelines Looking for city/MUD partners for testing in Spring 2017

Our Project Develop database and web portal Track and evaluate data Conduct education and outreach Expand research to validate results Commercialize technology

Billing Period – Home Screen

Daily Usage

Hourly Usage

Consumer Web Portal Implemented Features Upcoming features Usage per month, day, hour Estimated bill amount Multiple account support Utility Dashboard For customer service Mobile App Email alerts Leak alerts High usage alerts Consumer Reports - Including Conservation tips Neighborhood Comparisons Indoor/Outdoor Use Estimates Enhanced Utility Dashboard

Consumer Survey Conducted during June, July and August 2014 9,131 invitations distributed via email 1,270 respondents 14% response rate

Free-form survey responses Web portal users Web portal non-users

Post Evaluation – Summer 2015 Access Web Portal Using – 82% personal computer 9% smart phone 8% tablet Frequency of Accessing Web Portal 22% at least once a week 38% at least once a month 39% less than once a month 81% have a better understanding of how much water is used in the home 54% have changed their behavior as a result of being able to see usage Using less outdoor In home leak identification n=174

Do portal users use less? Preliminary results indicate average: Wintertime 2014/2015 reduction of 8.7% by users Summertime 2015 reduction of 17% by users Wintertime 2015/2016 reduction of 5% by users Additional Analysis is currently ongoing

Challenges for assessment Abnormal weather patterns in Arlington in 2014 and 2015 Well-timed rains depressed outdoor water use for all users (AMI and non-AMI) Drought restrictions not constant While adequate, smaller sample size than desired Not widely advertised

Other Activities Developed 2 Guidebooks Publications Submitted Considerations for Adopting AMI and AMR Utility Customer Profile Guide for Water Conservation Planning Publications Submitted A Comparison of Water Consumption Between Web Portal Users and Non-Users: Pre and Post Intervention Analysis A Review of Literature Regarding Feedback Communication to Promote Conservation AMI Trainings (Partnering with Johnson Controls Inc.) 14 training statewide – 280 attendees http://mywater.tamu.edu/other-activities/

Utility Customer Profiling Guidebook Percentile Bin Code < 10th Vlow 1 25th Low 2 50th Med 3 75th High 4 90th Vhigh 5 <max Outlier 6

Other Activities Continued Course - ALEC 625 (Program Evaluation) – Conducted program evaluation for City of Round Rock Pursuing a copyright through Texas A&M Office of Technology Commercialization Participated in NSF Innovation-Corps Program Commercialize and expand research

Research Scientist, Texas Water Resources Institute Questions? T. Allen Berthold Research Scientist, Texas Water Resources Institute 979-845-2028 taberthold@ag.tamu.edu