Housing in Southern Africa July 2015

Bathrooms, Kitchens & Plumbing

Substantial water savings AquaTrip’s slogan of ‘Saving every drop’ has really paid off for clients installing the system. The company has released the findings of a number of pilot projects outlining the water cost savings and rand values.

after the company had experienced excessively high water bills for the duration of 2013. Consumption after the Aquatrip installation reduced monthly consumption from 1241KL to 364KL. Another case study undertaken at Barlow to demonstrate the effective- ness of the product at the company’s Barons Woodmead dealership, in Johannesburg. De Wet Steyn says that the dealer- ship had fairly high water accounts and could not identify the problem. AquaTrip fitted the AT201E series to the dealership’s main line, which would automatically switch off the water, if a leakwas detected. This way the system can eliminate any night flow occurring. The AquaTrip count indicated that the unit, since being installed, had tripped every night after hours, due to a leak on the property or below ground. The savings achieved in the first month at the dealership covered the installation of the equipment. De Wet Steyn says that the cost of the AquaTrip is inconsequential to the savings that can be achieved by the installing the system and protecting the client’s water source. F o r f u r t h e r i n f o r ma t i o n , email:chris@aquatrip.com ■

A quaTrip was tasked by Shan- non Barkes from the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Water and Sanitation department to pilot the system at the Douglas Mbopa Sec- ondary School in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth. The school’s water and sanitation account was a whopping R2,8 million over 19 months. According to Chris De Wet Steyn, Sales Director of AquaTrip, ‘’With the failing infrastructure and use of sub- standard building materials most schools experience water leaks and plumbing problems. The AquaTrip is a permanently installed stand-alone Leak Detection System that will monitor the flow of water into a property and in the event of a burst geyser, burst pipes, taps that have been lefton, drips and leaks on cisterns and so, the AquaTrip will automatically switch off the water supply. Since introducing the AquaTrip system at the school the school has achieved an 85% water saving. The cost of the installation was repaid

from the savings with three months of the pilot project. Currently, the school averages between R70 000 and R90 000 per month for water and sanitation, this is well within their allocated budget. AquaTrip saved the school R360 000 in a year. At the Oval Office Park, a pilot project for Growthpoint AquaTrip reduced water usage by 71% within the first seven months and saved the company R52 143 on the irrigation and sprinkler system. The AquaTrip system is pre-pro- grammed to go into ‘sleep mode’ when the irrigation lines are active for example from4am to 8amand comes out of the ‘sleep mode’ in order to protect the irrigation line from any system malfunction. Should there be any water flow after one minute on the pre-programmed time, the AquaTrip will automatically shut off the water until the next irrigation cycle. AquaTrip’s water leak detection system was installed at the property

July 2015