Water Efficiency in Office Buildings: Fid-Bau Portal

Water Efficiency in Office Buildings

Bint, Lee / Vale, Robert / Isaacs, Nigel

To accurately rate the efficient use of a resource, first the current real‐time use of that resource must be understood. This chapter reports on a practical case study undertaken on New Zealand commercial office buildings, investigating both building and regional water performance. The study was undertaken in two stages, the first through survey‐level water audits to analyse the historic billing data, liaising with the building manager, visiting the building and inspecting its end‐uses. The second stage was through full water audits, using monitoring equipment to determine time‐of‐use patterns and information from a smaller subset of buildings. The study then developed water‐use indices based on net lettable floor area. Using a water efficiency rating tool, water end‐uses were able to be disaggregated approximately. It was found that a significant proportion of the annual water bill was consumed in plumbed appliances, with the male bathroom presenting the most opportunity for water efficiency improvements. Also, regional benchmarks, as opposed to a single national benchmark, are needed. For example, it was found that well‐designed tariff structures and universal metering in Auckland influenced higher levels of water efficiency in that city. More importantly, the biggest drivers for water conservation in commercial buildings are customer and consumer education, and financial incentives (i.e., tariffs).