In a high-rise building, the role of a concierge, or indeed any kind of building manager, is crucial to its smooth operation. One important task that a concierge or building manager should undertake is risk management. However, the most prevalent risk, Escape of Water, can stay hidden for weeks before the significant damage is discovered, resulting in costly repairs, and health risks to residents. Therefore, it is essential to have an effective leak prevention system in place that can alert the concierge and building management to any issues promptly.

In this article, we will discuss some practical scenarios that a concierge may encounter when monitoring a building's water consumption and how to address them effectively. I won’t go over the fundamentals of a leak prevention system (again), but feel free to read this article for a recap.

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Scenario 1: A resident in a multi-bed apartment has lived there alone for months and then moves out to be replaced by a large family, which causes water consumption to rise significantly. The sudden increase in water consumption can trigger a cascade of alerts that could potentially overwhelm the concierge.

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To prevent this, the concierge can create a holiday period in the software with high thresholds for the first month of the family's stay. After this period, the system can relearn the new consumption profile based on the previous month's consumption. Alternatively, the concierge can disable alerts for a week until enough information is gathered to retrospectively learn off. This may be an iterative process, as the system will get to understand the family usage over time, but the software should automate this as much as possible whilst making sure not to learn over any pre-existing leaks!

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Scenario 2: A resident in a multi-bed apartment has lived there alone for months and then has guests to stay for a weekend, causing a short but significant spike in water consumption.

In this scenario, the concierge can create a holiday with high thresholds for the weekend in question to prevent false alerts. This will also allow the system to automatically revert to the previous thresholds after the holiday period. Alternatively, the concierge can disable the alerts for the weekend (but will have to set a reminder to re-enable them afterwards). By sharing access with the tenant, they could also have the option setting up holiday periods themselves for future occasions.

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Scenario 3: An apartment is empty for some time before being occupied.

Usually there will be an “Inactivity Shut-off” which will automatically shut the water off after a period of vacancy. After this period the water will be switched off by default until the new residents arrive. In the event that the concierge forgets to turn the water back on, it only takes 10 seconds to do this in the software and can be done without moving from the desk.

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Scenario 4: A resident returns after a night out and, out of character, decides to have a shower in the early hours of the morning. The system might see as an unusual time and trigger an alert.

If the resident knows beforehand that they may shower at an unusual time, and they have access to their individual apartment in the software, they can tell the system not to turn the water off during the shower. Alternatively, when setting up the alert thresholds in the beginning, the concierge can consider setting a "minimum time" option. This option sets a minimum time for water consumption (we usually recommend 10 minutes), preventing the water from inadvertently shutting off during any event (up to that time). This is also particularly good for water softeners which “regenerate” at random times of the day.

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Scenario 5: A toilet starts leaking midway through the tenancy. The water switches off to prevent the leak from continuing, however it is not causing any damages.

A toilet can leak in many ways, either from the flush valve or from the fill valve, or the push/lever mechanism gets jammed. In modern toilets, the overflow drains into the pan, so in all cases, the water will not be damaging. The cause can be limescale, wear and tear, vandalism, faulty plumbing but it should be straightforward to fix, clean or replace the problematic part. The leak prevention software will say how much water is wasted and ideally the resident would make the necessary arrangements. However, in the case where the resident does not, the alert thresholds will need to be adjusted. To prevent the water from shutting off, the software can learn around this pre-existing leak so that it only alerts in the future if the leak gets worse.

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In conclusion, having an effective leak prevention system in place is crucial for a high rise building's operation. The scenarios discussed above are just a few examples of the many situations a concierge may encounter while monitoring Escape of Water alerts. By having a clear understanding of these scenarios and how to address them, concierge and building management can ensure that the building's water consumption is efficient and that any potential leaks are addressed promptly.

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Quensus provides water management solutions including plans, training and consultancy for leak detection systems. Contact us for your own Water Management Plan today!