Water saving at Miramar for Smart Green Apartments 15/11/16 meeting - - PDF document

Miramar Water Saving presentation Page 1 of 4

Water saving at Miramar

for Smart Green Apartments 15/11/16 meeting at Sydney Town Hall by David Green, longtime member of Miramar strata EC

Miramar apartments 398-402 Pitt St, Haymarket 2000

 a high-rise 38-level residential unit building almost diagonally opposite World Square shopping centre & 450m from Central Station  With around 271 residential units it is a high-traffic building 100 metres from Thai-natown Campbell St - https://goo.gl/maps/DP6AYxiw62C2 - and has many Thai tenants sharing  Single meter building completed around 1991-93 had increasingly expensive water bills approaching $200kpa - charged to individual unit owners strata levies by unit entitlement

Miramar Water Saving presentation Page 2 of 4

Sydney WaterFix at Miramar

Process:

 Suspiciously high water usage (way over SydneyWater estimates for similar unit usage), traffic and duplicate key handling raised issues of overcrowding of units – more people using more water they weren’t paying for so didn’t care !  David decided to do something – started researching and trying many different water-saving shower heads – finally decided on Methven Bermuda as cheap 3 function incl. massage

• was about $15 – now about $26

https://www.bunnings.com.au/flexispray-wels-3-star-chrome-bermuda-3-function-wall-shower-rose_p5160055

 Other members of the strata executive committee(EC) not interested or said too hard - ‘can’t force owners’  David decided to push for action by EC as only body charged with managing overall bills  With ever-increasing water bills reaching breaking point - finally obtained OK from EC  Engaged Sydney Water for WaterFix and front-desk building manager to notify residents of floor-by-floor visit to each unit to fix leaky taps and install new shower heads (sinking fund paid for no-cost-to-resident default or owner could pay more for other choices)  Sydney WaterFix for 271 units done over some days in December 2007 – total cost ~$7k

Results:

 amazing payback in ONE MONTH by the saving in the immediate month’s lower water bills compared to the preceding water bill of $16379 in November 2007 – saving $1500 December 2007 and $6363 January 2008 = $7863 saved in first month = the WaterFix cost.  estimated ongoing savings (cold water only) of $30kpa  David’s estimates of hot water heating costs as 4 times the cold water cost suggested potential savings of $120kpa – but Miramar had gas boilers at commercial rates, so estimates were scaled back towards half that – say hot water heating savings of $60kpa  Total cold and hot water heating cost savings estimated at $80-90kpa  Average Water usage dropped over 20% - from about 11.9 to 9.4 Megalitres per month – (comparing similar 7 months of bills for Jan-July) 2007 (before WaterFix) vs (after) 2008  So – cost $7k, estimated saving in first year over $80k  Worth doing ? Only if you like projects that payback in one month, then save you 20% of your water usage bills (in our case $80k)

Miramar Water Saving presentation Page 3 of 4

Wireless water meters – retrofit at Miramar

Process:

 After the amazing success, immediate payback and ongoing savings of the WaterFix completed in December 2007 -  Two years later we noted water usage bills had risen again, and back up to 13 Megalitres per month by October 2013  We realised that tenants were still overcrowding, still not reporting new leaks, and didn’t care about wasting water as they didn’t see any water usage bills !  David started investigating the idea of retrofitting individual water meters – and found a success story of a West Australian town that had installed wireless water meters – not found now – maybe Geraldton or Busselton RF meters real-time monitoring ? http://www.busseltonwater.wa.gov.au/customers/meters-and-consumption  At a UTS event, David accidentally met a representative of Taggle (Australian-made wireless water metering devices) and arranged for them to present to our EC meeting, which was suitably impressed. Taggle is now big in Melbourne, Canberra and W.A. in growing in the USA, but wants to grow (past the red tape) in Sydney – so may offer a good deal now.  The next Miramar owners AGM, despite David leaving early feeling unwell – voted to install individual wireless water meters to each unit quoted at around $720k – with future individual water usage costs to be added to the owner’s strata levies, and tenants future agreements to include paying for usage to reimburse the owner  Install facilitated by front-desk building manager – floor by floor (as for the WaterFix) and completed around July 2013 (Taggle case study - http://www.taggle.com.au/sydneycbd/)  Two components – a compact water meter & wireless transmitter installed/fitted together  Wireless transmitter (with a 10yr battery) sends a meter reading hourly as a tiny pulse  Receiver aerial in the building feeds the data into an online web page in real time  Building manager can log on and browse real-time data for individual units anytime  Tenants new lease agreements include paying for water usage – only allowed after water saving efficiency (WaterFix) - (owners still pay ~$118pq water availability bills)  Taggle sends a spreadsheet of individual units water usage quarterly to building manager – who spends 30-60 mins adding unit numbers, comparing usage with previous, checking for

• utliers/leaks then forwards to strata manager to consolidate bills to agents or owners

Results:

 Immediate saving in water usage bills – tenants reduced their water usage before the wireless meters were installed when they heard they would have to pay for it in future !  Water usage is about 36% less – down from 14 to 9 Million litres per month  Tenants are wasting less water – as they are billed for their individual unit’s usage  10-15 failures per year (of 271) of our first-generation battery quickly replaced by Taggle as part of their service agreement – they say 2nd generation batteries much better  Owners are VERY HAPPY ! The new user pays system is MUCH FAIRER !  Lacking individual usage data, previous whole-building single-meter water usage bills were divided by unit entitlement – so largest units with elderly couples often away overseas were billed e.g. 1% of the total water usage bills, which previously approached $200kpa  An old couple previously charged ~$1800pa for water usage now pays about $240pa

Miramar Water Saving presentation Page 4 of 4

WaterFix versus Wireless WaterMeters

 Do the WaterFix first – it’s too easy !  WaterFix is needed before you can do the second (or could be done at the same time) – you cannot require tenants to pay for water usage until you have done the water-saving installations of the WaterFix  WaterFix was a great amazing instant money-saving for a couple of years – until leaks started happening again – and we couldn’t get the subsidy to do it again for $7k  Wireless water meters were a huge upfront cost around $720k for a 271 unit building – but worth it - now saves about 36% of total water usage bills on an ongoing basis  36% lower water usage than previous water usage bills approaching $250kpa indicate savings of ~$86kpa – suggesting payback in ~8 years – but importantly by changing to user pays we have removed the single largest headache in the single largest strata expense!  Overcrowding tenants waste less water – they previously had no incentive to not waste water – and could invite all their friends over to shower for as long as they like ‘cos they never saw water bills – (everyone else got higher bills) - now they waste less as they get water usage bills and have to pay for it !  Water usage was the largest single expense item on strata levies - removing water usage from a general strata levy divided by unit entitlement, to individual usage has enabled a big reduction in owner’s strata levies – of the order of 25% - so owners can feel relief in the significant reduction in the size of quarterly levies they have to pay.  Individual wireless meters have removed great unfairness from the bills – an old couple of owners who were previously charged ~$1800 a year in water usage bills even tho’ they were often away overseas – now pay around $240 a year – around 87% less !  Tell that story to owners who might otherwise have balked at the upfront cost of the install – and how owners are now paying only for what they use, not what others use – and they’ll want it by yesterday !