A daycare centre used as much water every day as a family uses in three months
A leaking pipe outside the building sent 38 m³ of water through the meter every day
A municipal daycare centre normally uses almost no water at night. One Monday, 1.6 m³ of water suddenly started flowing through the meter every hour, around the clock. The alert went off the same day, and Enity’s support team contacted the municipality straight away. The cause turned out to be a leaking pipe outside the building.
38 m³
Of water a day, in a building that normally uses almost no water at night
175 m³
Total waste over five days, more than a family of four uses in a year
€7,400
Saved on one meter in May
What happened?
Water running around the clock
In a daycare centre, water is used when children and staff are there. At night and at weekends, consumption should be close to zero, and at the start of May it was.
On Monday 6 May, that changed. Suddenly 1.6 m³ of water was flowing through the meter every hour, even at night. Constant consumption that doesn’t follow opening hours is a typical sign of a water leak.
A leaking pipe nobody could see
The cause turned out to be a leaking pipe. The leak was on a pipe outside the building, so there was no water on the floor, no sound from a toilet and nothing the staff could see. Inside the daycare centre, everything looked completely normal.
That was also why the leak couldn’t be located straight away. From day one, the municipality knew water was running and how much, but had to find the leak outside the building. After five days, the pipe had been found and repaired.
Without meter data, a leak like this would only have been discovered when the water bill arrived, or when the ground around the building became wet.
There was no water on the floor and nothing to see. Only the meter data revealed that something was wrong.
How the leak was found
The municipality has an Enity Full Service subscription. That means Enity’s support team keeps an eye on consumption across the customer’s meters and acts when something looks wrong.
On 6 May, an alert went off on the water meter. The support team contacted the municipality straight away. Because the leak was outside the building, it took a few days to find and stop it, and after 10 May consumption was back at its normal level.
The result
- Around €7,400 saved on one meter in May
- The alert went off the same day the leak started
- A hidden pipe leak outside the building was found and repaired within five days
What does it mean?
How much is 38 m³ of water?
A family of two adults and two children uses around 127.5 m³ of water a year*. That’s around 350 litres a day for showers, cooking, laundry and washing up.
The daycare centre was using around 38,000 litres a day. That’s more than three months’ water use for a family of four. Every day, in a building where the meter normally barely moves for half the day.
Over the five days of the leak, around 175 m³ of water ran through the meter. That’s more than an average family of four uses in a whole year.
*source: Bolius and DANVA
Leaks usually only show up on the bill
Water bills often arrive quarterly or annually. A running toilet or a leaking pipe can therefore go on for months before anyone spots it on the bill. If the leak is outside the building, there isn’t even water on the floor to give it away.
In public buildings such as daycare centres, schools and sports halls, there is often nobody around in the evenings and at weekends. At the same time, a municipality typically has many buildings, and nobody can keep an eye on them all manually.
With hourly data and alerts, you know the same day. And every day counts: in this case, a single day meant around 38,000 litres of water.
What it looked like in Enity
More cases from the meters
- An empty retail unit used as much electricity as 50 households
- Do you know which of your sites are working overtime tonight?
- 24,000 litres of water vanished while the building slept
See all customer cases, or read more about Enity for the public sector.
Frequently asked questions
How do you detect a water leak in a building?
By tracking water consumption hour by hour. If consumption is high at night or at weekends, when the building is empty, that’s a sign of a leak. An energy management system like Enity EMS collects data from your meters and sends an alert when consumption deviates from normal.
What typically causes water leaks in public buildings?
Running toilets, faulty valves, leaking pipes and taps that don’t close fully. The faults are often small, but they run around the clock. In this case, it was a leaking pipe outside the building.
Can you detect a leak you can’t see?
Yes. The meter registers all the water that flows through it, including water disappearing from a pipe underground. That’s why meter data can reveal a leak long before it can be seen.
What can a water leak cost?
In this case, around 38 m³ of water ran every day. The saving on one meter came to around €7,400 in May, compared with not stopping the leak so quickly.
We can help you, too
Download brochure
Read more about energy efficiency with Enity EMS. To the benefit of both the budget and the climate.
Book a demo
We show you the possibilities and potentials for optimizing your energy consumption.
