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Faulty urinal controls contribute to 174,240 gallons of water wasted and an extra water bill of £ 2,249.

Author:  Graham Mann, Water Audit Expert.

On-going water bill validation will often identify increasing water consumption issues, the water auditing team continue to monitor and check water bills sent directly from the water companies to our offices for over 1,000 sites nationwide for Wolseley UK Ltd. the on going savings and refunds due to historical billing errors now exceeds £ 1.4million.

A site at Chelmsford was identified as the average daily use (ADU) had increased beyond the bench mark figure which is based on staff levels which are constantly monitored and updated. The excess water consumption above the benchmark figures was 2.17m3 (cubic meters) per day, each cubic meter equates to 220 gallons therefore the total unaccounted water loss was 792m3 equating to 174,240 gallons with water and waste water costs at £ 2,249 per year.

To put the water leak loss into perspective a typical family of 3 uses around 134m3 per year or 29,480 gallons so the unaccounted losses would be sufficient to provide water for nearly 5 households per year.

H²O Building Services dispatched leakage engineers who upon arrival carried out a standard procedure in order to identify whether the water supply underground was leaking between the meter located in the footpath. The main water isolation valve was turned off then the water meter was checked for water flow, the meter stopped registering flow proving the water loss was inside the building. The gents automatic flushing urinals had a water control fitted top prevent automatic flushing out of occupancy, however when the water supply was isolated to the toilet area the water meter ceased registering flow, the conclusion was the water control to the gents urinal was faulty and a new control was installed, see attached link. Saving £ 2,249 per year with a payback of 4 months. Sensaflo aw