The City of Oceanside has raised its rates by 44% since 2015—but water costs at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, CA, have gone down, thanks to water conservation measures by Water Saver Solutions (WSS).
Since January 2015, the hospital’s water cost per unit has soared from $8.60 to $12.14. But water-saving equipment that WSS recommended and installed has significantly reduced water usage. Best of all, ROI on the project was less than a year.
“Between 2015 and 2017, we saved 8 million gallons of water,” said Chris J. Miechowski, Director of Facilities & Construction at the full-service, 397-bed hospital. This year, the facility is on track to do even better: Miechowski estimates saving 13 million gallons in 2018.
In 2015 WSS installed low-flow showerheads, flow-optimized faucet laminars, pre-rinse sprayers and sterilizer retrofit kits at Tri-City Medical Center. WSS also negotiated incentives and rebates from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and San Diego Gas and Electric that reduced the project’s net cost to the hospital by 52%.
In 2016 WSS retrofitted the facility’s toilets and urinals with water-saving dual-flush handles; this time, utility company rebates and incentives slashed the project’s net cost by 64%.
‘[WSS] did all the work [to obtain the incentives]—I didn’t have to do anything,” said Miechowski. “They provided everything I needed to sell the proposal to the board, and since ROI was less than a year, I didn’t have to ask for any money from the board.”
WSS audits hospitals’ water and energy use and makes recommendations for conservation. The company then works with local utilities to find, negotiate and manage rebates and incentives that drastically reduce the hospitals’ cost of implementing the recommendations. In addition to saving water and gas, WSS helps protect faucet spouts and shower heads from bacteria growth by installing faucet laminars and shower heads with an antimicrobial component and providing an ongoing maintenance program.