1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. Texas State Water Plan

5. 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

6. 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

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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. Billing Period – Home Screen

13. Daily Usage

14. Hourly Usage

15. 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
alerts
Leak alerts
High usage alerts
Consumer Reports
- Including Conservation tips
Neighborhood Comparisons
Indoor/Outdoor Use Estimates
Enhanced Utility Dashboard

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

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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Research Scientist, Texas Water Resources Institute
Questions?
T. Allen Berthold
Research Scientist, Texas Water Resources Institute