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Have you checked your water bills recently? Do you have a water leak?
Author: Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.
Have you checked your water bills recently? Do you have a water leak?
The importance of auditing water costs cannot be emphasized strongly enough, a vast amount of companies in the UK simply do not realise that their water and waste water costs are draining their profits and the numbers are quite staggering.
In this case a national company with over 70 sites commissioned a water bill validation and bureau service which means all water and waste water bills are posted to water audit experts within H²O Building Services direct from the water suppliers. All relevant data is keyed into a water database, this key water data is then audited and sites are ranked in accordance with staff population and water facilities on site. This particular site ranked as the 2nd highest water consuming site within this clients portfolio. A desktop water audit report was generated and posted to the client.
In addition to the actual site survey a water flow data logger was installed to the water company meter, the water meter records the water volumes used on site. H²O commissioned HWM-Water Ltd to provide the water flow data logger, for more information on the product go here www.hwm-water.com
In my opinion the water flow data logger is a key instrument in providing data that a water audit expert would need in order to produce the maximum water savings and effectively drive down water costs, marry both the water flow data together with the knowledge and expertise of a water expert the results of any water survey can be quite astounding.
Once the data logger was installed the water flow data was downloaded and the most important time of the day for analysing water flow data is between the hours of 12am and 5am, in this particular instance 6pm when the sites closes to 7.30am when the site opens this is known as the nightline. In this case you will see a nightline of 0.229 litres per second. Which is 7,347m3 per year or 1,616,340 gallons per year at a cost of nearly £19,000 per year a staggering 80% of the water taken through the clients water meter.
This is a very common situation, the next stage is to attend site and for our engineers to complete a water leak detection survey, on completion of which a specification and cost of repair will be sent to the client. When the water leak repairs have been completed our account managers will commence negotiations with Severn Trent Water for a leakage refund.
What is a water leakage refund?
A water bill is broken up into various different elements, in the case of a Severn Trent Water bill you have:
The site area band charges – this is a charge based on the site area for collection, treatment and disposal of rain water that lands on the site.
Water meter standing charges – this is a fixed charge based on the actual size of the water meter i.e. 15mm – 25mm – 40mm – 50mm and so on, the meter size is often dictated by the size of the customers water supply pipe.
Volumetric water and waste water charges – there is a charge for water taken through the water meter and water discharged as waste, the volume in the case of this client in Severn Trent Water area is all water taken in is 100% discharged out, not all water companies charge based on 100% discharges.
Water leakage refund – water that has leaked into the ground is considered a “none return to sewer” as the water company have not received the water nor treated it and therefore no costs have been incurred by the water company, this volume on the waste water tariff is refunded.
In my experience quite a few water companies are not very receptive to these claims as they have to give money back, I would therefore recommend a water audit expert is commissioned to negotiate on your behalf in order to maximise the refund. In this particular case study I would initially calculate the water leak refund to be in excess of £35,000.
Have you checked your water bills recently?