Total cost savings: £384, 770 per year

Total water saving: 142,000,000 litres per year

Introduction

Barchester Healthcare is an independent care provider operating 240 care homes across the UK.

Demeter has worked with Barchester since 2012, developing and implementing their water management strategy to limit business risks and reduce impact on the environment.

The Problem

The reduction of unnecessary water consumption required analysis of water use at properties across the care home portfolio throughout the UK. Initially there was no data available beyond billing information, and no benchmark to better understand what level of water use was efficient.  

Barchester needed a way to understand genuine operational use for bathing, cooking and cleaning, as well as unnecessary use arising from faulty appliances and human behaviour.

The Solution

An initial trial sample of care homes were selected for datalogging installation according to the highest count of m³ of water used per resident per year.  Since then, the project has been rolled out in phases.  Demeter has now installed and maintains dataloggers at 137 Barchester homes. 

Effective interpretation of the data transmitted is the basis of the Demeter proactive monitoring service, which enables prompt identification of unnecessary water use.  Timely action leads to lower bills.

Data displayed through our bespoke software package, Utilities Manager is the start of the solution.  Sustained reductions of water use at the care homes have been achieved by linking the collection, display and interpretation of data with effective and prompt communication to the right people.

Demeter has built excellent working relationships with all the team at Barchester, led by their Energy Manager and co-ordinated with Heads of maintenance at each home and the regional managers who oversee operations.

Outcome

Demeter successfully reduced water consumption across Barchester’s portfolio, saving the equivalent volume of 1 Olympic swimming pool every week compared with the start of the project.  Initial savings are sustained because any emerging issue is dealt with efficiently, thereby avoiding ongoing water losses and preventing cost increases on water bills.

Demeter’s partnership with Barchester is important for both businesses.  Money saved at Barchester Healthcare can support further investment in care services.  Working together has shown that Demeter’s methodology is scalable while the analytical tools built into the latest version of our bespoke software have automated the analysis which was previously done manually for our customers.  Demeter is also now developing a more in-depth understanding of electricity usage at Barchester care homes with the objective of introducing a parallel system to reduce electricity bills.