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This release contains data on domestic water consumption in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumption of water by domestic households was likely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data used to compile this release were received by the CSO from Irish Water in response to a request made under the Statistics Act, 1993.
All figures are subject to revision. Water meters store three to four readings which are collected every three to four months using drive-by technology. Meter readings may not have been available for the whole release year e.g. if the date of the latest reading for a meter was before December 31st. Hence small revisions may be made to the previous year when the following year is published.
It is hoped to publish 2021 data in December 2022
The median is the middle value in a sorted list of values arranged from smallest to largest. The difference between the average and the median gives an indication of the extent of high consumption as the median is less influenced by the small number of meters with very high consumption. As leaks on the household side of the meter are repaired, the difference between the mean and median should be reduced.
This release only covers metered usage. Apartments that did not have an individual Irish Water meter, private group water schemes, and abstractions from wells were not included. The 2020 results are based on 847,262 meters. Meters were included provided a full month’s data could be calculated from the meter readings. Meters which had no consumption in a particular month are included in the report.
Irish Water provided monthly files of meter readings to the CSO. The files contained both meter readings and derived consumption data. The dates of the meter readings were generally from a date that was at the end of the month, but readings can also occur on other days of the month and in some cases a meter may not have been read in a particular month.
In a small number of cases, a meter was read more than twice in a month. In these cases the CSO used the first and last readings in a month to calculate monthly consumption.
Meter readings that were irregular in the series, e.g. readings lower than previous readings, have been excluded. Before excluding any readings, the CSO examined the series of readings for meters where there was a decrease of 500 cubic metres or more between two readings. The higher reading was excluded if it was the irregular reading in the series.
The CSO has converted the readings into monthly consumption figures by allocating the difference in two readings proportionately between the dates that the meters were read. Months with partial data have been excluded e.g. if the last reading for a meter was before 31st December, and there were no meter readings available yet from the following year, then that month was excluded.
New meters that were installed during 2020 were only included from the month after the first reading as we did not have the installation date. For example, if the first meter reading was in January then monthly data from February onwards were included.
The meter readings are in cubic metres. One cubic metre equals one thousand litres. The readings in cubic metres were converted to monthly consumption estimates. The mean and median figures were calculated using the monthly consumption figures. This methodology has an impact on the annual median as it was calculated as the median of the monthly daily consumption figures rather than as the median after aggregating all monthly consumption figures to an annual level and then dividing by the number of days in the full months.
There were a relatively small number of meters installed in Dublin 17. No meter data were available for Dublin 10.
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