Carbondale Plumbing Retrofit Final Report

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I: . Monitored Savings Billing information from the two communities served as the basis for monitoring water savings. The months monitored were November and December of 1991 and 1992 and January, February and March of 1992 and 1993. The selection of these months provided a five month period during which no lawn watering occurred. This period also provided a pre and post installation baseline as most installillions occurred in September of 1993. More importantly, this tlve month period allows for thc most accurate characterization of water consumption during the winter months. The Town of Carbondale has many stntctures on "pit" (underground) meters which the Town cannot read during winter months due to snow accumulation. (For an accounting of those residences, refer to Table 3, "Town of Carbondale Meter Type by Residence".) Consequently, the meters are rcad every November and March with estimates in the months between. . Using the billing information over the five month period includes the actual consumption during November, the estimates of December, January and February consumption, and the adjustment made to those estimates in March. These adjustments frequently cause March consumption to appear very large as they corrcct under-estimates from the three previous months; conversely, there lire some very small March consumption figures which correct over-estimates. However, these adjustments allow for fairly accurate consumption ligures over the entire period. Some Carbondale buildings and all of those in Glenwood Springs use "remote" meters; .these measure consumption at thc household and run a wire to a gauge on the street which the utility reads. TIley only registcr every 1000 gallons; if a customer uses less than 1000 gallons. the meter registers zero. The result is that the consumption figures for Glenwood Springs are somewhat conservative and consequently, so are the savings estimates. Table 4, "Water Consumption and Savings by Month and Commwtity", describes the results of the water efficiency program. The program in Carbondale and Glcnwood Springs has achicved a total average monthly water savings of about 151 ,000 gallons. That amounts to an average annual savings of over 1,800,000 gallons for the 77 households that wcre monitored. To put these savings in perspective, the Town of Carbondale could supply about I] new homes with the water saved from the 48 households monitored in this study. CONCLUSIONSIRECOMMENDATIONS * Significant water savings can be achieved by utilizing matching funds from participating households. This helpcd double the size of the effort and provided a strong sense of ownership by participants. · Monitored savings for 77 households was nearly 2 million gallons of water each year. This proves that significant amounts of water can be saved in eaeh household and that a small program can have large results when a cooperative partnership is established. * Begin monitoring efforts early in the process and include review by the people gathering the c0d Wd9~:~0 v661 0c 'l~O SVS1~96 'ON 3NOHd MAZY WO~.:!