How Can Metering Help Universities Improve Efficiency and Sustainability?
Knowledge is power. University and college campuses use a tremendous amount of water and power. By monitoring domestic water, domestic hot water, low or medium temperature hot water, chilled water, makeup water, and steam, these campuses can get the data they need to make better decisions about their water and energy use.
Learn where your energy is going
Whether you have central utility heating or cooling plants, or even if you are using boilers and chillers in individual buildings, you are utilizing a significant amount of energy to control the water temperature and produce steam. By installing flow meters to monitor the movement of water and steam throughout your campus, you can better understand where you are using the most energy. This information can also be used for transfer of custody metering so that individual departments and buildings can be fairly charged for the water and energy used.
Find trouble spots faster
Once you figure out where your water and energy is being used, you can quickly identify areas of concern. For instance, if you know a certain amount of chilled water is leaving the plant, the amount that reaches the building served should be a similar amount. If not, you may have a leak somewhere in between. To take it a step further, you can put meters in strategic locations between your central utility plant and the individual buildings. That information can show you quickly which areas of campus are utilizing the most water or power and if there is a leak or other issue in the area. Tracking this information over time will give you baseline data that you can use as a reference in the future if you see a significant change. Because universities use so much water, finding even a small leak can have a huge ROI.
Better understand demand
One of the major challenges on college campuses is the load shift when students are there and when they are gone for break between semesters. Often meters are bought to handle the high demand times, but when the students leave the flow is so low the meters do not work at all. Understanding your demand during all parts of the year can help you to figure out the right equipment for your application that will work during both the busy and slow seasons.
Documentation to save money
Data on energy and water consumption can help you to save money. The most obvious way this is accomplished is through finding problem areas and fixing issues that are wasting resources. There may also be ways to earn credits from your local utility provider. For instance. If you measure the makeup and blowdown water for a cooling tower you can get a sewer credit for evaporation. When you blow down water to maintain chemical levels that water enters the sewer, but water that evaporated already does not, by proving the amount your pumped up into the tower and the amount you blew down you can show what actually entered the sewer system so you aren’t paying for water you didn’t send down the drain.
How can Cross help?
Cross has years of experience in flow meters and extensive knowledge and experience specifically working with college and university campuses. We will work with you to find the right flow meters for your application and help with data collection so you have real-time data to make informed decisions. In addition, we offer a full range of products, services, and solutions including valves, valve automation, level measurement, control system design and installation, training, and repairs. To learn more about what our team can do to help your campus reach out to us today.