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Data-Driven Flow Monitoring Uncovers Water Leaks, Big and Small

“With WaterCompass®, we discovered indoor and outdoor breaks on our corporate campus, that were impossible to detect with other solutions. One area was leaking as much as 5 gallons a minute, probably for years. That equates to 300 gallons an hour, 7200 gallons a day, and 2,628,000 gallons a year.”

 — Chad Sutton, Water Resource Manager, Gachina Landscape Management

Leaks and pipe breaks can and do happen at any time. While some are obvious, others can go unnoticed for a very long time, causing significant damage. Hidden leaks or pipe breaks often rack up high water bills before the problem is discovered and repaired. Fortunately, smart water technology exists to help property owners and managers monitor their water use and give enough warning to fix leaks or address poor irrigation practices. HydroPoint® WaterCompass is one of these solutions.

WaterCompass, a service that uses a simple, clamp-on water monitoring device, enables detailed data, analysis, and alerts. With WaterCompass, the HydroPoint support team keeps an eye on anomalies and proactively reaches out when issues arise. Property managers, facilities engineers, and management and sustainability professionals rely on WaterCompass to stay on top of water use. They also receive timely alerts when leaks or breaks occur.

Real-world water leak monitoring in action

The following real-world examples illustrate how WaterCompass detects and monitors a wide variety of leaks:

 Slow Leak: The manager of several Texas-based apartment complexes noticed increasing water and sewer bills at one of the company’s sites. The bills continued to slowly climb from $12,000 per month to $17,000 per month. After WaterCompass was activated, a leak was discovered inside the vault of the backflow preventer. After repairs, the monthly bill went back down to its original amount.

Big Leak: A small commercial building deployed the WaterCompass service to monitor the main domestic water meter. Within a few months of installation, the daily alert level was exceeded, sending a notification to key personnel within minutes. Building engineers tracked the excessive usage to an underground leak caused by a broken pipe. For every day the leak went unnoticed, the company would have needlessly spent nearly $1,400.

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