The Case for Leak and Flow Monitoring

Leaks can and do happen at any time. While some leaks are obvious, others manage to stay hidden for a very long time, causing significant damage and racking up high water bills before they’re discovered and repaired. WaterCompass from HydroPoint is a leak monitoring solution that provides detailed data, alerts and analysis about how much water is being used. The solution was created because it’s really not a question of if there will be a water leak somewhere in any particular building – rather, the question is when.

Leaks take numerous forms. Below are real world examples of WaterCompass in action.

Slow Leak

The manager of several Texas-based apartment complexes was frustrated over a slowly increasing water and sewer bill at one of the company’s sites. At first he thought that perhaps the current set of tenants was simply a somewhat water-hungry group. As the bill continued to slowly climb from $12,000/ month to $17,000/ month, however, he knew something had to be done.

Once WaterCompass was installed, a leak was discovered inside the vault of the backflow preventer. When repairs were completed, average daily usage per apartment declined from 162 gallons to 124 gallons, and the monthly bill declined by $4,000/ month.

Catastrophic Leak

A small commercial building installed WaterCompass for the purpose of monitoring the main domestic water meter. Less than a year after installation the daily alert level was exceeded, sending an immediate alert to key personnel. Building engineers tracked the excessive usage to an underground leak caused by a broken pipe line. Every day the leak went unnoticed would have cost the company nearly $1,400.

Cooling Tower Malfunction

WaterCompass was installed on a 350,000 square foot suburban office building in the Southeast. Within days it detected water usage that exceeded alert levels by 40,000 gallons. Both the Building Engineer and Operations Manager were notified in minutes, one by text and one by email according to their preference. It was quickly determined that the valve controlling make-up water to a cooling tower had malfunctioned. The continuous overflow of water was running at a rate that would have cost nearly $550 for every day it was left undetected.

With WaterCompass water can be managed carefully and accurately, ensuring budgets are met and water conserved. Analyses and side-by-side comparisons can be easily made at one site or across an entire property portfolio. Continuously measuring domestic, irrigation, and cooling tower water meters and alerting the appropriate personnel to excessive or abnormal use in real-time can stop uncontrolled water loss and ensure that water is proactively managed.