University of Central Florida
OP-21: Water Use

Fiscal 2014 was chosen as the baseline due to the increase of sub metering and data reliability compared to previously recorded years.

August 2017 UCF switched one of its Chilled Water Plant Cooling Towers from potable water to reclaimed water, reducing the use/waste of potable water for cooling campus facilities. Cooling Tower 7 was switched over to reclaimed water, avoiding potable water use in favor of reclaimed use in order to produce chilled water. In May 2020 Cooling Towers 9 & 10 were also converted to accept reclaimed water instead of potable water. Then, Cooling Tower 8 was converted in February 2021 to accept reclaimed water as well. This completed the conversion of all four cooling towers for B0072 (Utility Building 2) to reclaimed water. Since the initial Cooling Tower 7 implementation in August 2017, Building 0072, between all four Cooling Towers has offset more than 45 million gallons of potable water by using reclaimed water. Expanding on this effort, with the construction of the new District Energy Plant IV, a new standard was set, and reclaimed water was included in early design to serve the new Cooling Towers 11 & 12 from the start of the new chiller plant. This effort has offset more than 82.5 million gallons of potable water by using reclaimed for the two Cooling Towers at DEP-IV from June 2020 through February 2024. Combined, from August 2017 to February 2024 (78 months), the main campus District Energy Chilled Water plants were able to offset the use of over 127 million gallons of water in 6.5 years, an average of 19.5 million gallons per year saved as well as a total cost savings of over $400,000. UCF will continue to adhere to industry best practices to maintain and conserve our precious water resources. Our objective is to maximize water efficiency within buildings and reduce the burden on municipal water supply and wastewater systems. Significant contributions to water use reduction has been provided by removing all irrigation from potable water supply and supplied by reclaimed water early on between 2011-2013, as well as mandating that our new construction facilities will use 40% less water than the baseline building. UCF's Utilities and Engineering Services (UES) department started a campus-wide meter testing initiative in late 2019 to early 2020, utilizing a 3rd party vendor to test over 220 water meters annually to ensure accuracy and identify anomalies and failed meters. This effort continues to demonstrate the need for validation and testing as 3-5 meters fail annually due to mechanical wear and depending on the flow can have a major impact on overall numbers. A primary focus is on utility chiller plants as they utilize more than 50% of all potable water produced and purchased for use on campus. Utilities typically test within the AWWA standard of +/- 5%, however UES Metering has set a standard of 2% for failure, requiring re-testing and eventual replacement. UES has invested in smart metering/sensor technology with leak detection and has demonstrated accuracy with confirming leaks in facilities throughout campus. Smart meters and sensors with leak notifications and interval data for modeling/trending have proven extremely helpful/effective in demonstrating use patterns, spikes, losses, and forecasting.  Additionally, UES Metering is currently implementing an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) metering network that provides real-time alarms and more granular interval data in near real-time to advance usage profiles and identify and flag anomalies. The network's initial phase currently underway is focused only on electric meters but a second phase later in 2024 or 2025 will transition remaining commodities such as Potable Water, Reclaimed Water, Sewer, Natural Gas, Heating Hot Water and Chilled Water to the new AMI network as well, providing 15-min intervals on potable, reclaimed and sewer metering and real-time threshold alarms and leak detection with more refined configuration for faster detection and reporting. This effort will advance detection and reduce water and revenue loss through early detection. UCF has invested in accurate metering and district metering installations to better track and validate water consumption and production. Such efforts have validated large leaks at the UCF Football Stadium, Parking Garages, Teaching Academy, Visual Arts Building, UCF Baseball Stadium, Towers, Physical Sciences, and more, to proactively correct and secure a precious commodity. Additionally UES Metering continues to assess and upgrade meters and metering technology with lifecycle replacements and testing to ensure accuracy for billing, reporting, and conservation of a precious resource. UES Metering has invested in a Smart Analytics Platform with EnergyCAP that collects the interval data and can easily be utilized to set alerts and threshold notifications against interval data to detect patterns, errors, leaks, and more, with the ability to provide M&V (Measurement & Verification) Savings analysis against current rates to demonstrate the success of any water savings initiative within a given facility.

Several initiatives spearheaded by Facilities Operations and Facilities Maintenance to implement low flow faucets and shower heads over the past 10-15 years have helped reduce water.

Baseline data updated to reflect corrected records.