Water Metering and Sub-Metering of UC Campus Buildings
Project Leads: Lindsay Miller & Elliot Nahman
Sponsor: Berkeley Institute of the Environment
TGIF Grant: $56,000
Project Theme: Water Conservation & Efficiency
Project Description: This project aimed to monitor water use in campus buildings, target and report the most wasteful facilities, and bring quantifiable savings to UC Berkeley while promoting campus sustainability and water conservation. These plans were accomplished through the installation and reading of water sub-meters in campus buildings. (See also Miller & Nahman’s 2010 TGIF Grant Project Water Metering and Conservation)
Goals: Purchase meters for installation. Connect water meters in several campus buildings to the online Obvius server to get real time data. Perform short-term metering of specific bathrooms and other areas of water use. Install water sub-meters in several campus buildings to get water-use information at a finer resolution. Install a pilot project of dual-flush toilets and pint-flush urinals to conserve water. Establish a campus process of using metering to identify “worst-offended” toilets and to detect leaks and needed maintenance. Save PP-CS labor hours by being able to read meters electronically, rather than collect data manually from meters one-by-one. Reduce water and electricity use and assist UC Berkeley in achieving its Cal-CAP goals. (See application for detailed metrics)