Water usage at MIT covers a broad spectrum of activities, ranging from everyday drinking water to microchip fabrication. Despite this broad range, a large percentage of water usage can be accounted for by a relatively small list of activities, including but not limited to cooling, drinking, and cleaning water.
Here is a map of the Annual Water Use at MIT on campus.
MIT has 19 dormitories on or near its campus. Of these 19 dormitories, 11 are designated as undergraduate housing and the remaining 8 are designated as graduate housing. There exists considerable variation in the designs of each of the dormitories. The smallest dormitory, Green Hall, houses only 50 residents, while the largest, Sidney and Pacific, can house upwards of 700 students. Other variations in design that would affect water usage include dormitories with meal plans, kitchen centered dorms, personal sinks in rooms, bathtubs, and courtyards. Also the age of the dormitories themselves vary considerably, with the oldest, Random Hall, dating back to the turn of the 20th century and the newest, Simmons, is scheduled to finish sometime in 2003. The older a dormitory, the more likely it is to have water leaks which can contribute to usage. It is important to note that dormitories that use chilled water in their cooling systems do not reflect this usage on their water meters, and therefore it is not included in the data for dormitory water usage.
This chart uses 2001 data for dormitory water usage and resident populations to determine the average water usage per person
The total water usage in the dorms for 2001 was around 95,000,000 gal.
Because of the non-uniform nature of almost every aspect of the dormitories, it is difficult to establish any trends. At first glance it appears that the newer dormitories, and those that were recently renovated overall have lower water usage rates. Except for Tang, which has the highest water usage rate of any dormitory, and was partially renovated in 1990.
From the chart, the water usage in the graduate dorms Tang, Westgate, and Eastgate seem much higher than the other dorms. This may be due to a lack of information on the specific number of residents in these buildings. Some graduate housing contains families and not all the children are counted for in the the values we obtained for resident population. However, it does make some sense that the water use is higher in dorms with families, as more meals are cooked and eaten in the house, and the residents may stay in the dorms more often.
In 1999 over 60% of MIT's water consumption occurred in academic buildings. Approximately 16% of this water was used for bathrooms, while the rest was used for laboratories. Water use within laboratories occurs in many forms and can vary greatly between departments. For example the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Ocean Engineering employ several wave tanks, tow tanks, and water tunnels. The department of Nuclear Engineering uses water as coolant for its reactor and high-powered magnets. Although laboratories can consume water in any number of ways, the most common uses of water are for running autoclaves, caring for animals, rinsing water, and running experiments with R.O. water.
The total water usage in the academic buildins for 2001 was around 130,000,000 gal.
It is difficult to obtain a complete breakdown of water usage by department because the main Campus building, which consists of buildings 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 24, 26, 31, 36, 37, 38, 39, 54, 56, 57, and 66 uses a group feed, and the individual buildings are not metered. For those buildings that have their own meters, the most water intensive was the Nuclear Engineering Center and National Magnet Lab with 14,500,000 gal in 2001, while the least intensive was the Hydrodynamics Lab for C.E.E. with 7,000 gal.
MIT is supplied with electricity, steam, and chilled water by its two utility plants: the Central Utility Plant, C.U.P., and the East Campus Chiller Plant, E.C.P.. These two plants form a network that provides both chilled water and steam to the dormitories, academic buildings, and laboratories. In 1999 the C.U.P. used 89,000,000 gal. of water, and the E.C.P. used 7,000,000 gal of water.
The Central Utilities Plant consists of the Cogeneration Plant and a water chiller system. The Cogeneration Plant produces both electricity and steam. During the colder months, the steam is used to heat MIT through a network of pipes and radiators. The water chillers provide chilled water to MIT through a network similar to the steam pipes. The chilled water system runs on a closed loop, and heat exchangers in laboratories and dormitories use the water as a heat sink. Laboratories use the chilled water for cooling equipment, while dormitories use it in their air conditioning systems. The E.C.P. consists of only a water chiller system, and is used to supply chilled water to that region of MIT.
The total water usage for utilites and facilities for 2001 was 96,000,000 gallons
MIT's sports and recreation areas consists of the athletic facilities and green spaces. The athletic facilities include the du Pont Athletic Center, the Rockwell Athletic Cage, the Johnson Athletic Center, and the Zesiger Center. No data is available for the Zesiger Center because it has only been in operation for less than three months, and billing is done quarterly. The total consumption for the remaining athletic buildings in 2002 is 4,200,000 gal.
Green spaces at MIT include Killian Courtyard, Kresge Oval, Briggs field, and assorted lawns. No data exists for Killian Courtyard because it is run off the main feed, of the main loop. Kresge Oval is included in the water usage for Kresge auditorium, which used 1,100,000 gal in 2002. Only Briggs field has its own water meter, and in 2002 it used 6684 ccf (5x10^6 gal.). Across the rest of campus, the irrigation systems on campus are old, and have never been changed since their installation. These systems are run by clocks in the basement of their respective buildings. They go off every day at a set time, but can be manually stopped. They are not metered individually, so no metered data exists for these systems.
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