Profile
Located in Hawaii
Built in 2008
Submetered in September 2016
118 residential units
Objectives
The townhouse complex had concerns over extremely high water bills that were continually rising. The townhouse community had exhausted local recommendations for water conservation measures as a whole.
Having no way to determine why their townhomes were using so much water they decided to initiate a water submetering program.
Results
The townhouse complex was losing 11 kilogallons of water per day.
To Date Savings: 4,015 kgal – $24,000.00 USD
CDN Conversion: 15,198.43 m3 – $29,912.40
Future annual water cost savings by identifying a leak: $24,000 USD
As there was no accurate baseline for what the cost and consumption of a main water bill was pre and post suite metering, it is difficult to realize the total savings of the water submetering. However, resident’s bills dropped an average of 24.7% from September of 2016 to September of 2017 equating to an additional savings of $35,072 USD.
Total Annual Savings: $59,072 USD
Through their submetering program, the building did the following:
- Decreased annual operating costs
- Reduced monthly maintenance fees
- Encouraged resident water usage awareness
- Provided monthly billing services to residents
Solutions
After three months the sum of the submeters was not close to the main water bill. The complex requested the Board of Water Supply to install a leak detection device. Shortly after, it was identified that there was a leak between the main water meter and the townhouse complex. After repairing the leak, the complex’s main water bill dropped by approximately $2,000 USD per month. Conservation efforts have netted residents an additional $2,900 USD per month totaling over $59,000 USD in annual savings. Mahalo Hawaii!