The HOA Board Quarterly Summer 2014 Issue #10 | 页面 4

You Can’t Conserve What You Don’t Measure!
by Moquey Marquross

W

ith ongoing drought conditions and
corresponding water shortages, and
with what seem like never-ending rate
increases, many associations are looking for ways
to conserve water to an even greater degree.
The first step in water conservation is to identify
where the water is going. This is simple for
associations that have separate water meters for
irrigation, buildings and/or units. However, for
the great number of associations with common
metering, this simple first step is impossible
because irrigation, common use and residential
potable water use is all lumped together at the
district meter point(s).
Not knowing for certain where water is being
used, leads to waste! ‘Wasted’ water is the first
place to start with any conservation plan because
it is usually the easiest and least expensive
change, often with the greatest result. Eliminating
waste also has zero negative impact on the
homeowners, unlike mandatory usage reductions
or taking out landscaping.
Examples of often unnoticed ‘wasted’ water
include (listed in order of magnitude): toilet leaks,
irrigation controller bypass, under-slab plumbing
leaks, underground lateral pipe breaks, water
softener/R.O. treatment system bypassing, pool
fill valves stuck and overflowing swamp or HVAC
system humidifiers. These are all very common
issues that can leak tens of thousands of gallons
per month; in fact, a single leaky toilet can waste
more water in a week than a family of four uses
per month!
Examples of noticeable wasted water include:
over-watering or over-spraying onto hardscape,
leaky fixtures and broken irrigation heads. All
of these leaks are usually easy to see and often
repaired quickly.
How much water is wasted? In the average
association with common metering, eliminating
just the wasted water can usually save 12% or
more from simply identifying and fixing leaks.
Additional savings can be realized through usage
awareness, landscape water management, lowflow fixtures, etcetera, to realize anywhere from
18% to 60%+ overall reduction in water usage.
Depending on the rate structure of the providing
water district, the dollars saved may even be
multiplied since the water saved can often bring
total consumption below the next tiered-rate
step.
How do you know where the water is going? Meter
it! Depending on the plumbing configuration of
the association, it may be possible to meter each
4 | The HOA Board Quarterly | Issue #10 | Summer 2014

individual unit, building, landscape quadrant/
sector and/or pool house. While the most ideal
scenario is to have separate meters on each unit
(then each resident can also be separately billed
for their usage), metering and monitoring the
separate buildings and/or landscaping sectors
can also show high-usage areas and substantially
increase the ability to identify and repair leaks.
Based on cost savings from eliminating water
waste alone, the return on investment (ROI)
for installing sub-meters is usually in the 6-18
month range, making these systems a very wise
investment.
Once the association’s water is sub-metered,
regular meter readings can track the usage of each
unit, building and/or landscape sector. Initially,
this data can b