Overview
As some of our past case studies have proven, monitoring your water utility bills is well worth the time and effort. Although these bills are monetarily lower in cost than electricity or gas, “a little here and there” does add up if a leak goes undetected.
Issue
During our daily analysis of the water utility bills for one of our large retail clients, we noticed there was an abnormally high spike in water consumption over a period of a few months, which amounted to double the property’s normal usage.
Action Taken
- With confirmation from the water utility, we contacted the property to notify them of the overage and inquire as to any anomalies that could have caused this abnormal usage.
- We recommended that the property contact a plumber for investigation. The plumber determined that the high consumption was due to a running toilet, which was repaired immediately.
- We continued to monitor the usage after the repairs were completed to ensure that the water consumption dropped, but it continued to remain excessive. This led us to notify the property again to inquire as to any other possibilities, which at the time might not have been apparent.
Results of Investigation
Within our investigation of this high water consumption case, our client was notified twice of two separate issues, resulting in two undetected leaks found by the plumber. While the running toilet was partly responsible for the high water consumption, the other issue found was associated to a piece of new equipment that had been installed to replace the waterline, but it had been left uncapped and water had been trickling into a nearby drain.
Conclusion
Undetected leaks do exist and we believe the second leak may have never been discovered, as it was only a slow trickle of water into a drain. With the utility bill monitoring services we provide for our clients, we were able to catch the abnormal consumption within a short period of time. While the issue was considered to be a relatively easy fix at first, our attention to detail caught the continued high consumption and helped us to determine the amount of water flowing out of the undetected leak. We helped our client to avoid additional costs of $7000, so that “little here and there” was kept to minimum.
Why not have Powerhouse monitor all your utility bills? After all, it’s our forte and we can give you the confidence to know that you are only paying the amount that you should be on your utility bills.