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Water Reduction Case Study for Schools

Water Reduction Case Study for Schools OGCbuying.solutions and Dart Valley Systems Limited have teamed up to provide every opportunity for the education sector to evaluate water usage and implement cost effective water saving solutions. DVS, one of OGCbuying.solutions approved suppliers specialises in water conservation.

Churston Ferrers Grammar School was selected by DVS and OGCbuying.solutions to provide a detailed case study with a well managed school to establish some guidelines on realistic cost effective savings.

Dart Valley Systems supports the OGCbuying.solutions “Watermark” project to provide free help and advice to the public Sector on how to cost effectively save water. An article was published in Focus on Energy under NEWS-Publications, identifying water saving opportunities. In this article we mentioned a project we were reviewing at Churston Ferrers Grammar School in Churston South Devon where DVS had identified potential water savings amounting to 28% of the water bill. In the first year we actually achieved 46% savings.

Introduction
It has been well known and publicised for 20 years how important it is to have urinal controls to stop massive wastage of water. This case study looks at these well established areas, but also provides a more sophisticated study. The results are staggering and if you have responsibility to manage budgets and reduce costs in schools this article should be reviewed carefully and acted on.

The school has 850 pupils and is a “Force for Change” school actively interested in reducing energy and water costs. They have very responsible staff and pupils and a walk around the premises would not suggest much could be done to further reduce water. There was not a single tap dripping in the whole building.

The school has a swimming pool, on site catering, and a sports hall used by the local community, so there were a number of factors to take into consideration when reviewing water use and benchmarks. DVS consider benchmarks only give indicative figures as most establishments have their own elements of uniqueness that affects the figures. It is also important that water is used efficiently and effectively to establish high levels of hygiene as well as low levels of water.

Survey
The survey consisted of inspecting each and every water outlet in the building, determining the amount of water per operation of each device and assessing the use through discussion with site personnel. DVS established the typical diary of events and numbers of females and males using the premises.

Findings
The estimated water use was compared with the water bills with the co-operation of South West Water. Additionally a logger was fitted with the support of Elimileak to provide detailed analysis of water use. The logged information confirmed there were no serious leaks as the small amount of night time use could be accounted for. The loggers also helped to determine how much water was used at different times of the day, including evenings and weekends. The objective was to establish areas where cost effective measures could be taken to reduce water.

There were areas where DVS would suggest on new build or refurbishment considering more water efficient products, but the key areas discovered which enabled immediate cost effective improvements were the urinal flushing [no surprises here] and WC flushing [serious new found potential].

Urinal Flushing
A typical scenario DVS find is that it is not obvious for a non specialist to identify whether or not urinal controls are functioning properly. The implication of this is that a large percentage of urinal controls fitted by schools in the last 10 to 15 years are not operational. On this site DVS were only confident that 1 out of 7 was working correctly. DVS recommended fitting 6 new urinal controls and setting up a maintenance contract to ensure they continue to function correctly long term. £25.00 per year regular maintenance can save £400 to £700 per year in water. Estimated savings £3,000 per year.

Recommendation: invest in maintenance contracts to ensure long term savings in water, it is a good investment. Saving on maintenance budgets is false economy.

Ladies WC Flushing
With around 450 female staff and pupils, and WC’s flushing 9 to 11 litres per flush, DVS recommended fitting electronic W.C., Flush valves in the 15 busiest ladies toilets. The estimated savings were £2,250.00 per year. Almost as much as the urinal controls.

Male W.C.’s
Whilst the WC Flush valves would of course provide savings in the male W.C.’s, the use is not so high and the payback period longer. DVS concluded that the design of the existing cisterns and pans would cater for one litre displacement bags without reducing efficiency of flushing. DVS would advise however, that incorrect use of displacement bags can result in double flushing and greater water use so careful evaluation is required. The estimated savings here was £250.00 per year.

Handwash Taps
Most of the taps were quite old push taps and not in very good condition. With the exception of one new, toilet block it was considered that taps should be upgraded as and when refurbishments were undertaken. In the new toilet block the push taps were poorly set, the water flow and run time were excessive. In phase 2 of work done, DVS changed these for water efficient self closing non-concussive taps. Estimated savings £100.00 per year [£75.00 in the first year as the work was implemented 3 months after the initial work].

Future Refurbishments
As toilets are refurbished, then further water efficient products can be installed, including more W.C. Flush valves to continue the fine tuning of the water efficiency of the site. Refurbishment work has already commenced following the period monitored.

Swimming Pool
The swimming pool has to have water replaced some years, and also has to be topped up due to evaporation and leaks. Other than raising awareness of the water used no immediate improvements have been made. DVS are reviewing alternative purification systems to see if the occasions when the water is changed can be reduced. The leakage also needs to be monitored.

Initial Forecast savings
Following a detailed survey of the site, completion of questionnaires typical of the type used by “Watermark”, historic water bills and discussions with staff to ascertain detailed knowledge of activities. From this detailed review and with extensive experience of water usage DVS were confident that they were able to identify with reasonable accuracy where the water was being used and the most cost effective areas where savings could be made.

The graph shows the assessment of the original water use; DVS estimated savings and the actual results achieved. DVS always provide conservative estimated savings to allow some contingency. The actual results were very close to the savings anticipated, with the exception of pool water use which varies from year to year.

Actual Cost and Payback
The total cost for all the work carried out by DVS was £3,552 including the electrical spurs for the W.C. Flush valves. The water savings in the first twelve months following the work were £5,975 representing a saving of 46% off the school water bill.

Benchmarks for Schools
Schools with low water use may not necessarily be water efficient, they may be unhygienic. A small primary school asked DVS to advise them how they could save water, but on reviewing water bills DVS established they were already “Lowest Quartile”. The stench from the boy’s toilets explained all. The water to the urinal cistern was turned off. DVS reinstated urinal flushing with PIR controls to achieve water efficient hygienic conditions. By implementing other water saving measures DVS maintained the very low water bill.

Churston had good levels of hygiene, which were not compromised even though massive water savings were achieved. The school has evening classes, a swimming pool and sports hall used by members of the public. Also bearing in mind the school has maintained high levels of hygiene, the water efficiency for the school has been improved from average to virtually best practise. This was achieved by just tackling the main areas where water could be saved.

DVS are continuing to monitor water use at the school, and as toilets are refurbished further fine-tuning will continue.
• Best 2.41 M³ per pupil
• Average 5.12 M³ per pupil
• Worst 10.76 M³ per pupil
• Churston was 6.27 M³ per pupil
• With staff & leisure hall 5.47 M³ per person
• After work 2.93 M³ per person

Note! Churston has a Sports Hall used by the public and a Swimming Pool and a small allowance has been made for this. Also bear in mind that many of the so called “best” ”lower quartile” water efficient schools may be unhygienic. We are sure that Churston are now one of the most water efficient schools in the Country in their sector, taking account of the school being built in 1957.

New school build should have the advantage of being in a position to use water efficient technology during the initial build, although they far to often fall well short of achieving best practice.

Conclusions
Churston Ferrers Grammar school is a “Force for Change” School and took the initiative to ask DVS to look at their water use. The following is a quotation from their memorandum: “We believe that a collectively managed, environmentally sustainable state school, working in partnership within its locality, is the most effective way to address the problems which are facing most school and public institutions, and ultimately society today. If our schools do not reflect and tackle concern for our environment then society faces a bleak future. “

Leakage and uncontrolled Urinals are well known to be potential areas for wasting water. A more sophisticated investigation can demonstrate even more cost effective measures that can be taken. Specialists can manage the whole process with very little time required from the school, and savings can be substantial as experienced by Churston Ferrers Grammar School.

Acknowledgements:
DVS would like to thank their own dedicated staff and the following for their support in achieving such a good result at Churston Ferrers Grammar School:

OGCbuying.solutions. Provided support and encouragement to produce a sophisticated case study.

Churston Ferrers Grammar School. The initiative taken is a credit to the school board. Particular thanks are extended to Sue Foot and Fred Rapson for their courteous support and co-operation throughout.

Elimileak. Who provided the equipment and support for the water monitoring.

South West Water. Are always co-operative with water saving initiatives and provided DVS early water meter readings to help us confirm the savings we were achieving at the earliest opportunity.

Email: sales@dartvalley.co.uk