Retail centre saves big with cinema tenant water leak detection

Background

A large Queensland retail centre was preparing to recharge its tenants for water use by validating meter readings via the PEAK Platform's monitoring. This also acted to address leaks,  raise awareness among tenants about their water consumption, and facilitate improved NABERS Water ratings.

Issue

One major tenant, a prominent cinema, was found to be consuming approximately 2.4-2.8KL/hr of water overnight, which is about 60 times higher than the normal overnight consumption rate of 0.04KL/hr.

Solution

The site team discovered that the cinema's water meter was not reading properly. After receiving a flatlined water meter alert on PEAK, the team replaced the faulty meter, with the new meter then triggering an overnight water consumption alert as it started catching up. An investigation revealed a leak, resulting from an overridden cooling call causing the tenant's condenser water system to stay on continuously, leading to excessive water consumption via the cooling towers. The leak was fixed, after the tenant was alerted.

Impact

The solution led to significant cost savings at the cinema tenancy. Estimated savings, calculated at $4.717/KL, are as follows:

• Cost per day now: $72.65
• Cost per day during the fault: $333 (4.5 times higher)

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