Water

Water efficiency matters in further and higher education because:

  • Water is a semi-scarce resource whose use needs to be minimised
  • UK universities and colleges spend over £50 million a year on water and sewerage (which are usually based on the amount of water consumed) so there are considerable opportunities to save money through more efficient use
  • The savings opportunities are often achieve than with energy because water efficiency has generally received less attention than energy efficiency

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Water Efficiency at Liverpool John Moores University

In 1998 LJMU's water invoices approached those for gas and triggered an audit. This found:

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many inaccurate bills (and therefore over-payment of VAT)
- continued billing for sites which the university had sold
- very excessive consumption at one site

This information eventually resulted in a repayment of over £80,000 from the supplier, and the repair of a large underground leak which had gone unnoticed for years.

It also stimulated a joint programme to ensure that each building was separately metered at a single supply point. The information which these new meters have provided highlighted opportunities for – and soon resulted in the implementation of – water efficiency measures, many with paybacks of 2-3 years or less. These included dams in cisterns; urinal controls, percussion taps, inline restrictors and replacement showerheads.

The net result of these measures was:

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A reduction of consumption from 268,168 cubic meters in early 1998 to 72,053 cubic meters in early 2001

- A fall in annual costs over the same period from £257,288 to £95,842
- An investment of £75,000, whose payback occurred within a few months.


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