Hampshire primary school saves thousands on water bill thanks to water saving trick

Our region’s schools use a lot of water during term time, so staff and students can wash their hands, flush toilets, cook, clean and play.

But with drier summers and more demand for water, we need to save as much of this precious natural resource as we can.

This is why Locks Heath Junior School on the outskirts of Southampton is celebrating success after a water saving solution resulted in huge cuts to their bills and usage.

Working with Southern Water and its water retailer, Business Stream, the school welcomed specialists from water and energy saving company, Cenergist, for a water efficiency audit.

This identified that by adapting toilets, taps, sinks and other water-using equipment, using a total of 82 control flow devices to provide a more steady and controlled flow of water, big savings could be made.

A smart meter was then installed to analyse water use, and indicated potential water savings totalling £1,260 per year. Furthermore, after completing the installations, more water was being saved than had been expected.

The school managed to save 1,600 litres of water per day – a total of three million litres of water every year – that’s more water than an Olympic sized swimming pool holds.

This reduces the school’s annual water and wastewater bill by half from £3,834 to £1,825.

Martin Pope, Southern Water’s Wholesale Services Lead, said: “This has been a real success story, and just shows what can be achieved by partners coming together. It is absolutely vital that we all use water wisely and this is just one of the ways we are trying to take steps forward in this space. We are hoping to do further trials with more schools across the region in the next financial year.”

Paul Blake, Facilities Manager at Locks Heath Infant School, added:

“Once the installs were complete and we saw the final reductions and cost savings, we were ecstatic to see the benefits”.