Water Management

Water should be treated along the same lines as your gas and electricity. In fact, I often say I am an energy manager responsible for all utilities gas, electric and water. When we look at the Worlds resources, I think Water is probably the most important resource we have.

But did you know that saving Water in your business and your homes could actually save you Gas and Electricity costs.

I call this my 'Treble Whammy' Water savings on reducing Flow, dripping taps, leaks and sheer waste provides 3 Savings:

1. Water Consumption

2. Sewage Savings

3. Heating (whether by Electricity or Gas)

I wanted to build on this as Water is part of the third largest expense for business and homeowners and I wanted to discuss this further. The water management very similar to energy management follows the same process of reviewing the bills.

After reading this document you will be able to use less mains water consumption, significantly reduced water costs and reduce the environmental impact.

Water Supply Market

Legislation introduced on April 1st, 2017 provided changes that affected the way businesses contracted for their water and wastewater supply.

Before 2017, businesses had no choice in choosing their retail water and wastewater service, but thanks to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and The Water Services Regulation Authority (OFWAT) this was changed, there is now room similar to the energy market for new companies, dedicated to water and sewage management, to be formed. This means the water will all still come from the same source, the wholesaler.

Water Billing

This again falls into the many issues we have within the energy market of both estimated billing and incorrect billing. Water meters are not always easy to find as they are external to the building and they could be in a car park, where you often have a car parked over the covers. In addition to this the meter compartment may be flooded so there is no way to review the meter. My recommendation here would be to create a ‘Meter Asset Document’ especially if you have more than one meter. This will state where the meter is and what access is required.

Sometimes the suppliers have wrongly stated what meter is installed. So, this is important to check as they may be billing based on an incorrect meter. The meter could also have two readings which will mean that there is a by-pass meter which counts when the flow is low. The meters will be provided with a unique supply number known as Supply Point Identification (SPID)

The actual bills in my opinion are or can be once again complex so there is certain terminology that you will need to be familiar with on your bill. Now based on the UK market you are likely to see these areas showed on your bill:

• Account Summary area
• Consumption area

1. Water Consumption
2. Sewer Consumption
3. Rainwater

• There is likely to be links to areas like Non-Return to Sewer and possibility Trade Effluents

1. Non-return to sewer your metered sewerage bill is based on 95% of the water you use returning to the sewer. The 5% allowance covers all household use, e.g. drinking, cooking, watering the garden and washing the car as well as considering wet and dry years. This can be challenged if you believe that you are possibly returning less than 5% to 10%
2. Trade Effluents - Trade effluent is any liquid waste (effluent) discharged into our sewers from a business or industrial process.Trade effluent is any liquid waste (effluent) discharged into our sewers from a business or industrial process. This includes any wastewater derived from a production process or from washing down or cooling activities including wastes from public funded activities such as municipal landfills. This can be best described as anything other than domestic sewage (toilet, bath or sink waste) or uncontaminated surface water and roof drainage (rainwater).

Billing Reviews and Validation

As the bills arrive it is advisable to carry out a ‘Billing Review’ ensure your bills are accurate, not estimated, and ready to be paid. Amalgamate this with you Gas and Electricity billing process again graphing your consumption. This is where leeks can be identified very quickly. Leaks could be in the ground where no one can see there are broken pipes. Your consumption will increase radically. It would be my advice here to take you archived bills and plot them as well as you could be accustomed to your consumption being high and incorporating a leak from many years. There will be additional costs on your sewage costs here as leaks fall into non-return to sewer.

Benchmarking water across your buildings is also a good way to review your waste.

Non return to sewer, Rebates

This is an area where if you can justify you had a leak and based on your graphing you can prepare a justified claim, the organisation can receive a rebate. However, it is worth understanding the supplier’s rebate terms here as they limit the rebate back to the start of the financial year or the actual year 1st January.

Contract Negotiations

Being able to negotiate your water supply (Like gas and electricity) is possible and though we are seeing some competition, the true cost in this utility is still within the infrastructure and the wholesale prices are not competitive, in the retail world.

According to Wikipedia:

Water supply and sanitation in the United Kingdom is provided by several water and sewerage companies. Twelve companies and organisations provide drainage and sewerage services, each over a wide area, to the whole United Kingdom: and supply water to most customers in their areas of operation. There are also 'water only' companies which supply water in certain areas. Some companies are licensed to supply water or sewerage services using the networks of other providers.

Managing Water Consumption

In my opinion and experience the best way to manage water is through good ‘Planned Preventive Maintenance’ continuous inspections and reviews. By monitoring and targeting the water consumptions and keeping focus on the consumption. Water is becoming an expensive resource and a valuable resource. Areas to review are:

• Dripping Tap reviews
• Dripping Showers
• Leaking joints and seals in both Heating and Cooling Plant Rooms
• Look out for leaks and puddles around your building.

Conserving Water

There are various ways we can focus on our water consumption management and that is through reducing the water flow (but not the experience). By reducing flow rates on taps and on showers these are good areas to make savings. We can also expect gas and electricity savings from this reduction as well.

Collecting Water

I am a great believer of collecting water as it is  ‘Free’ whenever I review Hotels and Care Homes, I would recommend putting Water Butts in, which reduce water consumption regarding watering gardens. It not only would provide good savings, but it also provides a ‘Green Statement to your customers’ and more importantly it also provides better water for your gardens.

There is also ‘Rainwater Harvesting’ which involves collecting, filtering, and storing rainwater from roofs for toilet flushing, laundry, and irrigation. For commercial applications this allows a business to collect and store rainwater from surfaces and hard standings for reuse. This is would be an expensive project if you were looking at retrofitting existing buildings and would be more cost effective if this was part of the design of a new building. 

Swimming Pools Management

This is a subject on its own as properties that benefit from swimming pools also are heavily impacted on water costs and if not manged correctly there are significant costs for all utilities Gas, Electricity, and water.

My staged approached for Swimming Pool – Energy Management would be:

1. Monitor the meter reads daily to ensure the system has no leaks and there is complete management of the system.
2. Ensure Water temperatures are being managed correctly and ensure external (space temperatures to the pool are maintained at 2 DegC above the pool temperature. If not, the swimming pool will act like a ‘Radiator’ a very expensive one as well.
3. Manage the back-washing process and obviously do these regularly but doing them every other day could be too much. Considerations are to be made on the differential pressures on filters. (Back washing is when you clean the filters with reverse flow and dump water to the sewer system). This heavily impacts on all utility consumptions.
4. Regular reviews are to be maintained and make sure all leaks are fixed immediately. All plant rooms must be completely dry.

Water Saving Devices

There are many water saving devices but my favourite one is putting a water bottle full of water into your toilet system, think how much water will be saved if there were flushes to your system regularly. The below are companies I have seen and worked with…

Flow Devices https://www.bamfordswaterblade.com/

Shower Heads - https://keldatechnology.com/

PPM on Water Management https://www.amplannedmaintenance.com/

?Compliance

It is a legal requirement to carry out a Legionella Risk Assessment Survey regarding your water, so it is mindful to ensure whatever modifications or change of use you apply always review legislation followed via:

• Risk Assessments
• Site logbooks

If you enjoyed reading this article or you want to provide feedback, please contact

Paul Webb at www.b2benergy.co.uk or send him a Direct Message, he will respond within 24 Hours.