Equipping WaterSignal in schools can save money and improve water delivery thanks to cutting-edge technology that monitors water use in real time and provides instantaneous alerts when leaks or system failures occur.
Water, a fragile resource
Water is finally becoming one of the nation’s most precious — and precarious — resources. Where once Americans lived and worked as though potable water was in almost infinite supply, recent droughts, pipeline water pollution, and ever-increasing demand have brought the issue of vanishing water resources to the public’s attention.
Fortunately, school districts and other public enterprises have begun to understand just how fragile water resources are, and this understanding has led many to monitor water use by installing a real time monitoring system.
WaterSignal, monitoring water use in real time for “green” building certification
One of the many advantages of monitoring water use in real time is that school maintenance workers and budget staff can now avoid the “sticker shock” of huge quarterly water bills that show up when a persistent leak has not been addressed or remedied.
Unfortunately, many school districts are not even aware of how monitoring water in real time can not only save money and streamline operations, but can have a positive impact on the environment.
For example, schools seeking “green building” certification under such agencies as the U.S. Green Building Council (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED) will necessarily have to establish that their water use falls within certain parameters. Other certification programs, like ASHRAE 189.3, the International Green Construction Code (IgCC), and the National Green Building Standard, or NGBS, have similar water-use mandates.
This green label designation can be disrupted in a single day where consistent water monitoring and repair are allowed to fall by the wayside. But not when a school building’s water use is being watched, minute by minute, by WaterSignal.
In addition to identifying inefficiencies before they become costly problems, WaterSignal helps control management costs by giving management access to water use data anytime, anywhere, without the need for costly travel expenses, larger fleet services expenditures, or key personnel offsite when a problem occurs.
Water losses through faulty plumbing
Some people still think that a leaky toilet is not a big deal. In fact, a single malfunctioning toilet can waste about 200 gallons of water in a single day. That’s over 6,000 gallons a month, or an average of $70.
According to WaterSense, a program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, residential water leaks waste more than 1 trillion gallons of water yearly. Imagine how much a school serving hundreds of young people can waste between toilets, faucets, drinking fountains, food service, heating and cooling, and landscape maintenance.
In the cloud
WaterSignal functions in the cloud, saving data to remote, secure servers connected to the Internet. This means that data about water use is instantly retrievable from a computer or smartphone.
WaterSignal’s wireless monitoring technology can even take on big installations like cooling towers, providing the necessary data to determine if the cycles of concentration are right. In one instance alone, WaterSignal’s monitoring detected a massive leak which, when repaired, saved the customer $19,000 per week.
Of course, WaterSignal also alerts to small leaks, like a drinking fountain button stuck in the open position, toilet valve malfunctions, excessive irrigation, or a commercial dishwasher springing a leak.
For more information on WaterSignal, contact us today.
