Undetected Water Leaks Could Cost You Thousands
Water’s Getting Expensive The advantage to living in a city next to a lake, river or water source is being
Water’s Getting Expensive The advantage to living in a city next to a lake, river or water source is being
The advantage to living in a city next to a lake, river or water source is being able to access the fresh water it provides. Many of our bigger cities and municipalities, such as New York, Chicago, Michigan, Washington D.C., and many others use these water sources; many cities not by a water sources are required to transport fresh water to the city through pipes, which could justify a higher price for water. But despite many cities proximity to water, the price of water has tripled in the last 10 years! Can you think of any other utility that has tripled in costs in the last decade?
Water is quickly becoming the most expensive utility. Some condominium communities are paying more for water charges each year than they do for natural gas and electricity. While the price of water has increased, there is another factor behind high water bills.
Many utilities in bigger cities include statements on their bills that warn people about water leaks. For example, in Chicago, monthly water bills include this sentence: “Little leaks can cause big bills.”.
Let’s quickly look at the cycle of a water bill. Your business, your community or you, in your house, use water for eight weeks and then ten days or a month later you get a bill that tells you how much water you used and the price, plus all the taxes, sewage, etc. There is no itemization.
Imagine checking out of a grocery store and getting a receipt that just had the total price on it. It gives you less control. That’s your water bill. And here’s why this is important. If you water bill was itemized, it would most likely have an item on it called “leaks”, meaning the amount of water that you lost through a leak each month.
Obviously, if you see a drastic spike in your water bill you will suspect a leak. Many utilities have measure to protect you against this. But how much are you paying each month for small or undetected leaks? And why is it so important that in big cities, the utility goes out of their way to write that on their utility bill?
A recent water-usage study done on 15 multi-residential properties / communities that ranged between 100 and 400 units showed that each of the 15 properties had a water problem to one degree or another. The study simply looked at the amount of water flow that was occurring during the middle of the night; when most people would not be using a lot of water. Taking into account people getting up to go to the bathroom and leaving some room for people doing late night laundry; the numbers still didn’t add up. Additionally, all 15 properties showed a continual flow of water no matter the time. Many properties did not go below 2-gallons per minute while some worse off never got below the rate of 10-gallons per minute. Do the math and the average yearly amount wasted on water was just over $52,000 a year.
The real answer to the question, “do you have a water leak”, is simple “I don’t know.”
But what if you could see water-usage in real time? What if you could look at your water usage by month, by week, by day and even by minute? And review times when you’re business is closed, detecting undetected water leaks? Yes that’s what we’re telling you.
Energy Professional partners with cutting-edge water monitoring solutions that use IoT and intelligence to monitor and manage your water flow down to the minute.
One 22-unit condominium in Chicago completed a water leak detection program; replacing out 183 toilets of which 69 had active leaks. A usage study was done before and after the detection program; showing that after the toilets were replaced the property used 4.3M gallons less then the previous time period and that by the end of the full year, the properties will have conserved 5.5M gallons of water; a savings of roughly $55,000. The association was able to pay for the toilet upgrades from the savings they realized; without needing any money upfront.
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