What are water audits and what do they do?

When you work with SwitchWaterSupplier.com, one of the first things we’ll do for your organisation is to carry out a desktop water audit, which will compare your water use, including volumes, against those you are being charged for. With a water audit, our objective is to highlight any inconsistencies that have resulted in you being billed incorrectly and an audit also allows us to make specific recommendations on how you can reduce your water usage and lower the associated charges.

It’s often possible to see a 30% reduction in charges for water supply and waste water disposal following a water audit carried out by SwitchWaterSupplier.com.  During the course of an audit it’s quite common that we’ll uncover the opportunity to claim refunds for historical overcharges and we regularly see refunds ranging from up to £500,000 or more.

• SwitchWaterSupplier.com’s in-house expertise is unsurpassed, so much so that our services are also used by a number of water retailers
• We’ll provide you with a desktop water audit at no cost, helping you understand whether your bill is correct
• The team has an outstanding track record of saving organisations of all sizes large sums of money on their water bills
• We have a strong reputation for the quality of our service, as evidenced by client testimonials
• SwitchWaterSupplier.com receives no commission on savings and refunds.  Instead, we’ll agree all professional costs and fees up front, and you keep all savings made

A desktop water audit is only the beginning.  Based on our findings, we’re confident you’ll want to explore all of the potential savings and efficiencies open to you.

Having to pull together records like this may sound like a pain, but the intention is to gain full visibility of water expenditure in order to gain control over a significant business overhead.

Having to pull together records like this may sound like hard work, but the intention is to gain full visibility of water expenditure in order to gain control over a significant business overhead. Water bills can be complex and opaque, with lots of hidden and obscure tariffs and charges. Our expert consultants remove the uncertainty around your water billing, so you can see exactly what it is you are paying for and be sure it’s correct.

• Retail outlets: Staff levels, the number of public toilets
• New and used car dealerships: Staff levels, number of public toilets and details about car valeting bays etc.
• Pool and leisure clubs: Number of members, swimming pool capacities, spas, plunge pools details etc.
• Schools and colleges: Number of pupils, staff levels, details of any leisure facilities, laboratories, catering etc.

Because of the high volumes of water often used in industrial operations, we may ask for more in-depth information from these types of business. As a general guide, we ask manufacturing and industrial clients to provide a description of how water is used across the whole production process, including wash down, in-product use and disposal. We also ask for copies of trade effluent bills and any effluent flow sampling and monitoring data.

These charges are often forgotten when we ask for billing and usage information, but they are always worth closer examination. Even though they are not levied by a water company, we will include them in an audit as part of the overall process of looking at cost and efficiency savings.

Once we have received billing information and water usage survey responses, our water audit experts will turn around a preliminary desktop report in 7 to 10 days.

A preliminary desktop water audit report is designed to give you the full picture of where you can save money on your water bill.  By comparing billing and usage data, our experienced professional consultants will be able to identify opportunities to reduce water use, cut costs and potentially secure a refund for historic overcharging.  Based on our years of experience, SwitchWaterSupplier.com’s team will also be able to quickly determine whether the information we are working from is broadly accurate or not.

The water audit report will also include costed recommendations for action to improve water efficiency and reduce future costs.  This will cover all professional fees, and provide an estimated return on investment – the average we aim for is between 9 and 12 months. Once approved, the next phase is to undertake a full site survey to verify details and finalise the work proposals.