College Saves $100,000 with Water Flow Sensor
summary
Michelle Cong is a Sustainability Coordinator at Fanshawe College which offers programs to 43,000 students at 4 different campuses every year. She used to read the college’s water bills to find ways to save money and conserve water. The bills did not have enough information and the water costs did not go down. The plumbing team installed 30 Flowie water flow sensors at campus buildings. Flowie found savings of more than $100,000 a year. These savings can help offset greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
watch the video
Fanshawe College is saving more than $100,000 in water costs every year thanks to the Flowie water flow sensor.
“Flowie has saved Fanshawe College $100,000 a year.”
- Michelle Cong, Sustainability Coordinator, Fanshawe College
lowering greenhouse gases and saving water
Michelle Cong is continually exploring ways to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) and energy waste. She feels water consumption receives less attention than it deserves. The distribution and treatment of water need energy. Michelle looks for water inefficiencies to help reduce the college’s operating costs and offset Scope 3—indirect—GHG emissions.
“Using Flowie is a great way to help lower GHGs and reduce utility costs. I would recommend Flowie to any sustainability director or organization.”
- Michelle Cong, Sustainability Coordinator, Fanshawe College
water bills not enough
The IT department at the college analyzed all of the college’s water bills. Michelle and the sustainability team used the analyses to identify savings opportunities. Michelle had charts and data that compared water costs, but there were 2 big problems with this approach.
First, the information from the water bills was old. If there was a problem such as a leak, the college wouldn’t know for months. This caused high water bills that could not be explained. Second, there was still a lot of manual analysis that needed to be done. Michelle looked for a better system.
The Alert Labs Water Timeline shows the amount of water usage before and after the cooling tower problem was fixed. Savings amount to over $100,000 every year.
Flowie identifies huge savings
The Fanshawe College maintenance team installed 30 Flowies at buildings across the campus. One of the installation sites was Building D. This building had higher than usual water bills. Flowie's minute-by-minute water use data showed a very high base flow for this building. The usage was high at all times during the day. The college used this data to discover savings of over $100,000 a year.
Easy-to-use dashboard
Michelle uses the Alert Labs Dashboard to compare water usage over a variety of time periods. She can see water problems before the college receives their water bill. Flowie sends emails and leak alerts to her phone. The maintenance team also knows about problems such as abnormal water usage faster than they could before Flowie was installed.
“Flowie lets you know if it’s a big or small leak. It tells you how many gallons a minute are going through the pipes.”
- Jason Melville, Maintenance Plumber, Fanshawe College
smarter asset prevention with flowie
Before Flowie, the college handled leaks and floods differently. Students or staff would see an overflowing toilet and tell the maintenance team. Plumbers could only fix the problems that were seen and reported. Leaks could waste water and cause damage for weeks or months before the maintenance team knew about them. The college ended up paying for high water bills and repair costs long after they fixed the leaks. Since Flowie was installed, leak and flood response time has shrunk from weeks or months to within minutes or hours.
"You don't have to learn a lot of extra things to use Flowie. It's a really simple installation."
- Jason Melville, Maintenance Plumber, Fanshawe College
green roof saved
Fanshawe College supports green initiatives. There are solar panels throughout the campus. The college also has a green roof to reduce energy costs and boost efficiency. Flowie helped protect it from water damage. The roof’s irrigation system malfunctioned and gallons of water were gushing out. Flowie detected the unusual water usage pattern and alerted the maintenance team. Within hours of the discovery, the irrigation leak was fixed.
“The leak on the green roof could have gone on for weeks or months if Flowie didn’t catch it. The damage and high water bills would have been significant.”
- Martin Smits, Maintenance Plumber, Fanshawe College
Flowie has also sent alerts for water consumption at 4 AM when the buildings are empty. This type of insight would be impossible without Flowie’s 24/7 monitoring.
flowie for all buildings
Flowie is helping school districts and colleges across North America make significant savings on water costs. Flowie is installed at multi-family residential buildings, commercial real estate, single detached homes and other building types to help reduce bills and prevent water damage. Billions of gallons of water are tracked by Flowie water flow sensors installed throughout the world. The insights provided are helping customers to reduce water bills by 18% on average.
Leave a comment
Comments will be approved before showing up.
Also in News
Mitigate Risk of Self-Insurance with Smart Leak and Flood Solutions
Remote A/C Monitoring Can Keep Your Techs And Customers Safe
7 remote water monitoring tips during COVID-19 and beyond
get in touch!
The best way to understand how our sensors and monitoring help grow your business is to see them for yourself. Fill out the form and we'll set up a time to show you how easy it is to increase revenue, stand out from the competition, and boost customer retention.
Support Team
Author