You may have just arrived to work and received and an email from accounts saying “Are you sure we use this much water?” Then when you read the cost you nearly spat your hot coffee across the desk.

“How can this be right?” We hear you say. “How on earth have we used this much water?” “There must have been a mistake when they read the meter?!?!”

We absolutely understand how you feel and would like to take this opportunity to help you and your company. The thing is, it doesn’t necessarily take a major unnoticed burst water main to increase your water usage to extremely high levels. In fact, 95% of all cases we see with increased water usage are easily detected and repaired.

We have had ongoing referrals from our industry association (Master Plumbers SA) to businesses who have experienced ‘bill shock’ and are initially worried there must be a major issue with a burst pipe, to only attend the business premise and very quickly and easily locate and repair the leak. It’s amazing how much water can “Go down the drain” and then add up the litres and eventually Kilolitres if the issues are not addressed.

The following things are easily monitored with no extra effort required from you.

• Singular, or multiple running toilets would be the number one offender when it comes to overwater usage. That’s right, that little trickle of water running down the back of the toilet pan hour after hour, day after day is the number one reason for your huge water bill.
• Dripping taps internal and external to the business are very common offenders when it comes to increasing the overall water usage of your home.

There are however less common things that can occur, that will take a bit of investigation to locate within the plumbing system. These include but are not limited to,

• The burst water main (sometimes this goes unnoticed)
• A mains water top-up to a rainwater tank has failed. (This will then drain into your stormwater system)
• A failed float valve or solenoid on your evaporative air conditioning system will discharge water to your gutters (This will also, then drain into your stormwater system)
• A failed pressure relief valve on a storage hot water system, or a leaking hot water system.
• Cross connections within Heated hot water systems.
• An incorrectly programmed automatic gardening system may overwater your business's landscaped areas.
• An RPZ backflow valve is constantly running from the relief discharge port.

There are many, many potential causes of leakage individual to each business and we have a process of elimination to locate and repair your system. There are also many ways we can help you save water around your home and minimise the potential for future water leaks and issues to the Plumbing system within your business.

We as a business are energy conscious, but equally as important we’re also water conscious and believe in protecting the future of our water supplies, our most precious resource.

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