How to reduce water loss in buildings and campuses
Most building water loss is silent: a running toilet, a stuck cooling tower fill valve, irrigation on a broken schedule. Aqueduct compares supply with sub-metered use every hour, so the unaccounted share points to a line and a time instead of a monthly bill.
Water loss hides in the hours nobody is watching.
Why a leak survives for months
- One meter, one bill
A single inlet meter read monthly cannot separate a leak from a busy month.
- Night flow nobody sees
Flow that should fall to near zero after hours keeps running, and no one is on site to hear it.
- Small flows add up
A toilet leaking half a gallon a minute is quiet, constant and easy to miss on a walkround.
What leaks cost, by EPA's own figures
of a facility's water use can be lost to leaks.
Source: US EPA WaterSensea month from one toilet leaking at 0.5 gpm, about $2,100 a year.
Source: EPA WaterSense at Work, 2.3unaccounted water is the point at which EPA says a facility may have leaks.
Source: EPA WaterSense at Work, 2.3From unaccounted flow to a closed leak
Meter the big lines
Sub-meters go on the lines most likely to leak: cooling tower makeup, irrigation, kitchens, restroom risers.
Close the balance hourly
Supply minus metered use is the loss. A rise above the site's own night baseline raises an alert.
Locate and dispatch
The alert names the line and the hour it started, so the technician goes to one riser, not the whole building.
Confirm the close
Night flow on that line returns to baseline, and the gallons avoided are priced at your water and sewer rate.
Four numbers that show whether loss is under control
| Metric | What it tells you | Act when |
|---|---|---|
| Unaccounted share of supply | How much water no meter can explain | It rises above your site threshold. |
| Minimum night flow per line | Baseline leakage when the building is empty | It drifts up for two nights running. |
| Cooling tower makeup against load | Overflow or a failed fill valve | Makeup rises while cooling load does not. |
| Time from alert to close | How fast the team responds | Alerts stay open past your service level. |
sites in 21 countries run on Aqueduct.
and 9 clinics in one of India’s top hospital chains.
US airport running water intelligence on Aqueduct.
of commercial real estate under Aqueduct.
FMCG manufacturing campus.
operations run on Aqueduct.
Related
Common questions
Yes. Each building gets its own balance, and the campus supply is balanced against the buildings, so loss on buried mains between them shows too. That gap is often the hardest leak to find by survey. See universities and schools.
Partly. A main meter with hourly data shows rising night flow for the whole site. Locating the leak to a line needs sub-meters on the branches, which a survey sizes. See water meters.
This page covers the leak problem itself and how to measure it is solved. The aQ WaterGuard page covers the full water system, including treatment, reuse and the live water twin. See aQ WaterGuard.
Running toilets, stuck cooling tower fill valves and irrigation on a broken schedule, all of which keep flow above zero at night. Aqueduct alerts with the line and start time. See restroom monitoring.
See Aqueduct on your own facility.
Bring a site, a utility bill or a question. We will show you where the loss is.