How a Harlem Condo Uncovered Hidden Water Waste

Water waste is often a silent drain on your building’s finances, and it takes a bit of sleuthing to find the source. Alan Rothschild, president of the Vantage Group, a water cost management consultancy, reveals how one Harlem condominium discovered their commercial tenant was secretly using water-cooled refrigeration equipment that bypassed their sub-meter, costing the building thousands annually. He shares practical strategies for  identifying waste, the real cost of sub-metering commercial spaces, and what professional water conservation tune-ups actually accomplish. Habitat’s Carol Ott conducts the interview.

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Transcript

Carol Ott (00:38)
Welcome to Problem Solved, a conversation about challenges facing New York co-op and condo board directors. I'm Carol Ott with Habitat Magazine, and I'm joined today by Alan Rothschild, president of the Vantage Group, a water cost management consultancy. Alan, thanks so much for being here.

Alan (00:57)
You're welcome, thank you too.

Carol Ott (00:58)
Today we're going to talk about strategies for reducing water waste in New York City's co-ops and condos. Water bills have been rising about 13 % in the last two years, leading many to wonder if there is waste in my building. And if so, how to find it? We're going to discuss how one condominium in Harlem did just that and cut its water bill from $60,000 to $25,000 per year.

We're also going to discuss how cooling towers can contribute to water waste and what buildings with commercial tenants should be on the lookout for. And we're going to touch on what a professional conservation tune-up is. So let's kick off our conversation, Alan, with a look at that condominium on 116th Street that cut its water bill by you explain what was going on there and how they accomplished the savings?

Alan (01:52)
Well, they had a small retail space, a kind of

general

type store. And it had a meter, a water meter, and they were charging the tenant for the water use, which was $15, $20, $30 a month. But what they didn't know was that the bodega had water-cooled refrigeration equipment that was not being supplied through that water meter.

Carol Ott (01:57)
Mm-hmm.

And how did they find out? what alarmed them that something was not going on correctly?

Alan (02:19)
Well,

basically we do work for other buildings that are managed by the same company and the manager of that building felt the water costs were too high. So she brought us in to take a look at what was going on. After we did a thorough investigation, after a couple of months, we figured out what was wrong.

Carol Ott (02:36)
So talk to me about commercial tenants and water meters. I always assumed a building had one water meter.

Alan (02:43)
Well, there's one main water meter that comes in off the New York City supply line. And the city builds the building based on the use that goes through that meter. But further downstream of that meter, for example, the building has retail tenants, those retail tenants need to be sub metered so they can pay their fair share of the water costs.

Carol Ott (03:02)
I see. And so what are for boards who have commercial tenants, what would you say are the most important factors in determining whether one should do water sub metering? I assume there is a cost to doing that.

Alan (03:15)
Yes, of course it costs money. But if you don't sub-meter your tenant, there's no telling how much water they're using and what it's costing the building. The building we're talking about, for example, thought they had everything under control. And initially we thought there was just a lot of waste in the apartments. But once we figured out what was going on, that the bodega had water-cooled refrigeration that was being run very inefficiently, we were able to cut their costs by putting in a sub-meter.

Carol Ott (03:40)
Can you give me a sense

the sub-meter cost, what installing that might have run them?

Alan (03:45)
Yeah, it's a relatively minimal investment in terms of what it can save. A typical sub-meter installation is anywhere from maybe $1,500 to $3,500, depending on the size of the supply line.

Carol Ott (04:00)
And in your experience, do most commercial tenants have their own water sub-meters, or is that unusual?

Alan (04:08)
Most of them do, but unfortunately, over the years, lot of that sub-metering becomes inefficient or incorrect. Tenants change. One restaurant replaces another. They install new equipment. Perhaps it comes through the existing meter. Perhaps there's a supply line much more handy that a plumber can hook to. So it doesn't go through the meter. Plus, there's the other factor that as meters age, they tend to under-register.

They don't run forever. The typical lifespan of a water meter with accuracy that's acceptable, which is 98%, typically seven to 10 years. Beyond that, the meters should be replaced.

Carol Ott (04:47)
Now I'm just curious, a lot of buildings have had water meters installed by the city that is metering it. Is that the same lifespan for a building's water meter?

Alan (04:59)
Yeah, the city changes water meters after about seven to ten years, even if the water meter is working.

Carol Ott (05:05)
I see. All right, let's go up to the roof and let's talk about cooling towers. So cooling towers use water and presumably have water meters. And how would you identify if that's wasting water or something is going on that makes the system inefficient?

Alan (05:23)
Well, the way to figure out if it's running efficiently or not is to constantly monitor the use. That's something that Vantage Group does regularly. With all the buildings we have as clients, we have the cooling tower meters in addition to any other meters in the building under our automatic meter reading system. So we watch the use. And cooling towers can get out of control very quickly and very easily.

Carol Ott (05:45)
And why is that?

Alan (05:46)
the control systems get out of line, out of alignment. There's feed valves on those cooling towers that are supposed to supply the water as it's needed. But those can become defective and then the water runs constantly and over fills the evaporation tank and just runs straight down the drain. And that gets very, very costly.

Carol Ott (06:06)
And does the city regulate these water meters for cooling towers or provide some kind of incentive if you use a certain kind of water meter?

Alan (06:14)
Well, yes, if you file the proper paperwork and put in a New York City approved meter, it makes the building eligible for cooling tower sewer credits. You get the sewer charge reduced on the water that goes through that cooling tower. That can amount to a significant amount of money. It can amount easily to three, five, $7,000 a year, or maybe 15 or 20,000 a year, depending on the size of the building.

Carol Ott (06:37)
And where would a building see on its billing if they're getting that credit?

Alan (06:42)
It's posted right on the bill. It's a separate section.

Carol Ott (06:44)
I see. So most likely the board is not getting the bill, if they have a management company, the management company is getting that bill. Is that correct? I'm just curious, are most water meters at the cooling tower level city authorized? So most buildings are getting this credit?

Alan (06:52)
Yes.

It depends. We come across buildings regularly that have a meter but it's never been filed with the city so they're not getting their credits. We come across other buildings that don't even have a meter. So that's something we always look for.

Carol Ott (07:10)
So that.

So I would think that's a note of caution to boards to check into this.

Alan (07:20)
Correct.

Carol Ott (07:20)
So kind of as a broader question, how would a board even know that their water costs are high?

Alan (07:27)
Good question because water use in buildings, there's no average use that you can rely on. Each building is different. It depends very much on the equipment and fixtures in a building, the various water systems, and also very much on the demographics of a building. What's normal for one building might be extremely high for another.

Carol Ott (07:48)
So if you're a board and you're governing this building, how would you go about seeing if my building is wasting water? besides looking at your resident population, are there metrics that you would use or how would you even start?

Alan (08:03)
Another good question. That's something that's definitely not easy because every building is individual. What we do is we go in and take a look at the building, do a site visit, look at the equipment, the systems and the demographics. And then from that, we calculate what the building's normal water use should be. We then compare that to what's been going through the meters according to the city bills. And right away we know if the building is running relatively efficiently or not.

You're never going to get rid of all waste, there's a certain level which is kind of unavoidable. But we often come across buildings that are using 30, 40 percent more water than they really need to.

Carol Ott (08:38)
And I'm just curious, if a building is using 30 or 40 % more water, where is it going?

Alan (08:45)
It depends on the building. If the building has retail, that's one place we look very quickly. If the meters are old, they may be under registering for the retail. So the retail is getting discounted water charges. There's also maintenance factors, particularly for toilets. They don't run forever correctly without proper maintenance. Once they age, just like water meters, as the toilet internals age, they become less and less efficient.

and a toilet that originally might have been flushing 1.6 or 1.2 gallons per flush might now be flushing 3 or even 4 gallons per flush when it doesn't need to.

Carol Ott (09:22)
Talk to me about what a water conservation tune-up is.

Alan (09:26)
Water conservation tune-up is when an experienced vendor goes into the building, tries to access all the apartments. What he does, he'll install water-saving aerators, but good quality ones

enhance function usually. He'll replace shower heads usually on a voluntary basis if a tenant wants that. And his focus mainly is on making the toilets work more efficiently. Anybody can reduce the amount of water that a toilet uses.

but that might cause performance problems. The trick is to balance the two.

Carol Ott (09:54)
And in many co-ops and condos, people have done alterations and renovations. So everybody has a different brand of toilet, a different style of toilet. Can somebody who's coming in and checking the efficiency of those deal with all those different styles and different brands?

Alan (10:10)
Another good question. And yes, the answer is an experienced vendor has been through that and knows that he has parts for Kohler or Gerber or whatever happens to be there.

Carol Ott (10:20)
Well, thank you very much. These are very important and revealing lessons for co-op and condo boards. Alan Rothschild, president of the Vantage Group.

Alan (10:30)
Thank you, Carol.