News

Have you got a water leak? Not all water is lost underground.

Many businesses are now focusing on reducing costs and are now asking what are our water costs?

Upon closer inspection there are some surprises, having installed a flow data logger onto the water company incoming water meter and accessed the data the new owners of a Hotel discovered that 1 cubic metre of water was being registered on the water meter every hour including early hours of the morning. This does not sound like much a mere 220 gallons of constant usage for a hotel however multiply that by 24 hours in the day 365 days per year and you get 8,760m3 per year at a cost of £ 17,000 per year straight off the bottom line!

The natural assumption is we must have a water leak! Upon further investigation various sources of water loss were discovered.

Firstly – The main incoming isolation valve to the property was shut down so that all water to the Hotel was isolated inside, the main incoming water meter was still registering flow via the flow logger attached to the water meter, this devise captures the flow and consumption data and stores it for future auditing.

It was therefore decided to call in water leak expertise, all overflow systems were checked which included W.C overflows and urinals in the gents toilets were checked to ensure occupancy detectors were fitted in order to prevent  filling and flushing of the urinals when not in use. The urinals were discovered to be filling and flushing every 15 minutes.

 This system constantly flushing can waste over £ 3,000 in water, in extreme cases more than double that.

Further investigation in the main kitchen areas revealed further water wastage, a leaking hot water tap and a broken plate pre-wash leaking significant hot water, both require simple repair.

The investigation  was then undertaken outside in order to discover if there was a water leak on the main incoming water supply. The internal valve was isolated and the flow on the water meter checked, the flow indicated a leak on the supply pipe of 0.5m3 per hour which was 50% of the original m3 water loss, assumed water leak.

All drain inspection covers were lifted and checked for water ingress and leaking water from a water supply pipe normally makes its way into drains. A surface water drain cover was lifted and a constant clean water flow was discovered. To ensure the water flow was mains water a chlorine test was undertaken, the sample turned pink indicating that it was mains water.

The repair costs for the water leak repair and 2 new taps will be around £ 3,000, saving per year £ 17,000.