Water surveys have identified significant annual cost savings for two schools in Cambridgeshire, providing a quick return on investment and greatly reducing waste water.

Linton Village College (LVC) is a comprehensive secondary school with a reputation for educational excellence. Part of the Anglian Learning Trust, the College has over 850 students between the ages of 11 and 16.

As a Village College, the school is at the heart of its local community, providing learning, sports and leisure amenities for its locality, and recognised its responsibility to conserve water. The school engaged Zenergi to carry out a water survey to identify opportunities for reducing water consumption.

The survey investigated the causes of the leakage and identified they took place in the toilets and urinals. For a charge of no more that £2,000 to fix the issue, the payback period would be around one to two months.

Additional low-cost measures were identified that cumulatively should lead to annual cost savings of approximately £16,176 with an investment cost less than £2,500, giving a payback period of 2 months. This would be a 80% reduction in the current financial cost of water.

Read the full case study here.

Sawston Village College

Sawston Village College is a comprehensive school committed to providing inclusive, comprehensive education to all. Part of the Anglian Learning Trust, the College has around 1,000 pupils between the ages of 11 and 16.

The College aims to be at the heart of its local community – and the local community at the heart of the school. Its well-equipped sports centre hosts many clubs, children’s parties and events, and the College also has a cinema run by pupils. School leaders recognised its responsibility to conserve water and engaged Zenergi to carry out a survey to identify opportunities for reducing water consumption.

The survey identified low cost measures that cumulatively should lead to annual cost savings of approximately £6,270, with an estimated investment cost of £1,000, giving a return on investment of a few months. This would be a 48% reduction in the current financial cost of water.

Read the full case study. 

Do you know how much water your site should be consuming?

The best practice water benchmark figure for a school is 3m³ of water per pupil per year. While the benchmark can differ slightly according to various factors, this is a good baseline figure for an initial assessment.

It is simple to calculate: Divide the amount of water your school used in the last 12 months by the number of pupils. You can find this information on your water bill, or Zenergi customers can easily access this information in the customer portal, the PEPI.

If the resulting figure is above 6m³of water per pupil per year, we recommend a water survey to identify how you can make savings.

Read more about water surveys here.