Contextualising household water consumption patterns in England: A socio-economic and socio-demographic narrative

Abstract

Water utilities strive to achieve a sustainable reduction in per capita consumption (PCC) by optimising their peak demand management strategies. Socioeconomic (SE) and socio-demographic (SD) characteristics have been proven to correlate with PCC. However, the full extent to which these characteristics underpin peak demand and PCC is yet to be fully understood. Previous work used medium resolution smart meter data from 10,000 households to discover and characterise temporal consumption patterns that underpin peak demand, identifying four distinct clusters of households, namely "Evening Peak" (EP), Late Morning Peak (LM), Early Morning Peak (EM) and Multiple Peak (MP). Using survey results, "Acorn household classification", household occupancy and UK population and household attribute data, this study attempts to draw a correlation between the four clusters and known variables of the participating households. Results have revealed a strong correlation between many endogenous attributes (particularly housing, occupancy, age, number of children and household income) and households' consumption patterns underpinning peak demand. Some 56% of families in privately rented housing show EP characteristics compared with 22% owner-occupiers and 9% social renters. EP households with teenage boys have 37% higher per household consumption (PHC) than average, while EM families with teenage girls use 47% more water in early morning showers than average.