Bullecourt Apartments is managed by Building Management Australia (BMA) and a highly engaged Strata Committee. Renewed focus on water efficiency resulted in substantial savings with no capital outlay for maintenance or repairs. As no significant leaks were identified in common areas, data driven decision making was required to achieve water and cost savings.
Today, Building Management Australia receives 15 minute interval data on the SUMS platform to help identify inefficiencies and prioritise maintenance tasks for water and cost savings.
One example of water savings occurred when SUMS data revealed unexplained nightly water use in the complex’s main car park, car wash bay and bin wash down areas. Closer investigation revealed the car park meter was also connected to irrigation. While gardens should have been irrigated using recycled water, closer inspection revealed that tanks were connected to town water top up. Figure 1 illustrates water usage before and after irrigation was corrected on site.
Fig 1: SUMS Graph illustrating unusual nightly water usage trends
Building Management Australia and the Strata Committee have continued to demonstrate a commitment to improvements. The complex and is now working to address water use in apartments. A questionnaire circulated to all apartments highlighted 41 apartments (from a total of 217) with in-apartment leaks (dripping taps/leaking toilet cisterns etc.) BMA is currently working with residents to ensure these issues are rectified.
Collectively, water saving activities undertaken at Bullecourt Apartments over the past 2 years have achieved cost savings of $46,450.
Figure 2: Graph Illustrating water and cost savings
The graph above illustrates water usage and costs for 2015-17 with total water savings of 14,200kL and cost savings of $23,225 p.a. over the past 2 years. These savings equate to the building’s average quarterly usage.
Building Management Australia is actively utilising water usage data at Bullecourt Apartments to create resource savings, building efficiencies and cost savings.
Bullecourt Apartments is one of 45 residential strata buildings utilising the SUMS platform as part of the City of Sydney’s Environmental Performance Grants and Smart Green Apartments programs.
Margrethe Ingemann