5 Simple steps to reducing your business water bill

Water is a great place to begin – after all, the average business in the UK is using 30% more water than necessary.

Using less water will save you money, lower your carbon footprint, and if you use less water within a manufacturing process that heats water, also reduce your energy bills. Here’s what you can do to keep water bills down.

The first step on your journey to being water efficient is to understand your current consumption. This gives you a consumption baseline to measure your business against and may help you identify leaks.

Did you know over 90% of leaks aren’t visible, but there are some simple steps you can take to identify them?

• If your factory or site closes say at 5pm, take a meter reading then, (if it’s safe to do so), and another before it reopens the next morning. Unlike with energy, if your site is completely closed, you shouldn’t be using any water overnight. If the meter dials have moved, then you could have a leak.

• If you believe you have a leak, one further practice to implement is a ‘stop tap test’. Turn off your internal stop tap and if the meter dials are still moving this may suggest a leak on the pipework between the meter and your internal stop tap.

If you suspect a leak on your premises, contact us to see how we can help.

While manual meter readings might seem appealing, you may want to think about automating this process. Data logging (also called telemetry) gives you online access to view your water flow, helping you to get closer to the data and immediately spot any issues or trends that need further investigation. You can also set alarms to automatically alert you to unusual flow levels.

One company we work with used data loggers at all its sites to identify and fix leaks, saving it 53,000m3 of water per year.

Regardless of how you use water at your premises, a water efficiency survey can help you identify how to reduce the amount of water consumed. Experienced engineers can analyse and assess your water usage from ‘domestic’ type fittings (e.g. toilets, taps and showers) through to your site's production and operational processes. They will identify opportunities for efficiency and give you personalised recommendations on how to reduce your costs.

A longer-term approach, in which you specifically look for low water consumption for any new appliances, fittings or processes, can really help to get water usage down. Another option is to ensure your employees use water efficient settings on any appliances, especially if you’re not replacing them any time soon.

If you use conventional hoses in your company, consider using high pressure spray jetters instead. They use pressure instead of a large volume of water to clean.

While many employees will already use water saving tips at home, they may not know how to replicate this within the workplace. Introduce water saving information, an employee suggestions scheme or arrange a water efficiency session to increase awareness of the importance of using water wisely.

For example, letting your employees know that a tap which is either leaking or left open can waste 60 litres of water a week will help them to understand how their actions directly affect your bills and the environment.