Abstract
Rainwater harvesting systems (RWHS), one of measures for on site rainwater management, have been promoted by laws, regulations and guidelines and have been increased. However, more evaluation of economic feasibility on RWHS is still needed due to seasonal imbalance of rainfall and little experiences and analysis on design and operation of RWHS. In this study, we investigated tank capacity of RWHS to secure economic validity considering catchment area and water demand, which is affected by building scale. Moreover, sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the effect of design factors, cost items and increase rate of water service charge on economic feasibility. The BCR (benefit cost ratio) is proportional to the increase in tank capacity. It is increased steeply in small tank capacity due to the effect of cost and, since then, gently in middle and large tank capacity. In case of 0.05 in the rate of tank volume to catchment area and 0.005 in water demand to catchment area, BCR was over one from the tank capacity of 160 $m^{3}$ taking into account of private benefits and from the tank capacity of 100 $m^{3}$ taking into account of private and public benefits. Sensitivity analysis shows that increase of water demand can improve BCR values with little cost so that it is needed to extend application of rainwater use and select a proper range of design factor. Decrease of construction and maintenance cost reduced the tank volume to secure economic validity. Finally, increase rate of water service charge had considerable impact on economic feasibility.