Host: Reese Tisdale
Guests: Nina Aya Rossiter | Digital Water Analyst | Bluefield Research &
Amber Walsh | Water Research Analyst | Bluefield Research
Category: 🔬 Research
Podcast’s Essential Bites:
[4:40] AW: “Domestic water [is] the water used both inside and outside your home. When we are talking about indoor water use, we're talking about what water is used in the bathroom, the kitchen and to wash your clothes. Outside, we're talking about lawn irrigation and water used to wash your car. And although in the US this is about 8% of total withdrawals, globally it's closer to 12%. So […] it is a small share of the pie, but it is important to think about. There's a lot of diverse stakeholders. […] When we think about domestic water, we can think about its relation to the population. So in areas of high growth, we might see increases in their domestic water demand.”
[7:04] AW: “Here in the US water bills are on the rise. And that's a trend seen in other places as well. […] There's also policies, like you […] mandates to reduce water usage in your households in times of drought. There's also incentives. So you could get a rebate to get a more water-friendly fixture in your home. […] Also, if you care about the climate or the environment, as water scarcity becomes more prevalent and you want to reduce water in your home, you're helping out others.”
[10:16] AW: “Indoors, a large portion of your water use happens in the bathroom. So in the US toilets account for about 24% of indoor water use. […] And a big portion of water used actually goes to leaks. So identifying those leaks and fixing them could even decrease that water bill.”
[13:08] NR: “Digitalization is really changing the domestic water market. […] And when we think about the opportunities for monitoring, or to have those improvements [in water management], […] the top of my way is just water quality monitoring. For example, there's a US startup and it's called […] Spout and they've been targeting lead detection for in-home drinking water. So basically, they just combine the hardware and the software, there is a small disposable cartridge, you fill that with your tap water, and then you insert it into a reader. And with your smartphone app, you're able to actually see real time results.”
[14:37] NR: “Amazon […] released Sidewalk, which is […] a mesh network. And what it does is it connects with all our devices that are connected to Amazon […]. So a way that it could be used in water is with metering, because nowadays, instead of just manual meters […], we can connect the data from the meter straight to the utility. And that allows the utility to analyze the data.”
[18:29] NR: “A market channel that is becoming pretty aggressive [is] the relationship between smart home appliance manufacturers and insurance companies […] [with] a huge focus on leak detection. […] In the home, what we found is that in both Australia and the US, around 30% of domestic property claims are from water damage.”
Rating: 💧💧💧
🎙️ Full Episode: Apple | Spotify | Google
🕰️ 31 min | 🗓️ 02/01/2022
✅ Time saved: 29 min
Additional Links:
Report: “Domestic Water” (Bluefield, 2022)
