Easiest Way to Save? Read Your Water Meter
We’re inundated with guidance on how to save water and energy. Change your light bulbs to LEDs. Put in a new Watersense shower head. Install programmable thermostats. I work on this everyday and it’s too much to keep track of.
If you’re interested in saving on utilities in your building, where do you start? I’ll tell you: read your water meter. Every. Single. Day. There is no more cost effective use of your time.
At POAH we have over 500 water and sewer accounts across our portfolio. The vast majority of these only get read by the local utility once a quarter or twice a year. That isn’t enough data to effectively manage water consumption. A leak could go unchecked for months if you rely on the utility to do your water readings.
Now, reading a meter is sometimes easier said than done. Check out the guide from the City of Chicago website on reading your water meter:
I swear I didn’t doctor this. It actually says “NOT SURE THIS IS DOABLE WITH THE VARIETY OF METERS WE HAVE.” Even their guide is confused.
The variety of meters out there does pose a challenge, to be sure, but you can figure it out. I believe in you. Here’s my simple guide:
- Figure out what unit your meter is reading. Could be cubic feet, gallons, etc. Check your bill for guidance on this or call your utility.
- Read your water meter. Write down the reading.
- Read your water meter around the same time the next day. Write down the reading.
- Subtract the value from yesterday from the value from today.
- Do this every day you can for as long as the building exists.
With water leaks, time is money. The longer the leak goes on, the more it costs. Water leaks are a double whammy—you’re also going to get billed sewer charges for all that wasted water. Once you start reading the meter you’ll get a sense of what a typical daily usage should be and if you get a number that is way higher than that average, something is up. Go check the units for running toilets or other leaks.
As a point of reference, at POAH, we average around 70 gallons per bedroom per day. A building using more than that represents a great opportunity for a water conservation project, which are typically among the most cost effective projects out there. Added bonus: now that you’re reading the meter every day, you’ll see just how much water you are saving when the project is done.