Help your landlords and tenants save money on their water bill
- How can I help my landlord or renter save money on their water bills?
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It's easy! The biggest areas of water use in Darwin households is leaks and irrigation. So concentrate on these things and you'll go a long way in helping reduce your customer's water bill!
Living Water Smart has identified that around one in eight Darwin homes has a leak, with the average leak wasting 500 000 litres or $1000 per year – enough water to fill an average three bedroom home.
And don’t forget the garden. Living Water Smart's research has found that watering lawns and gardens make up a whopping 57% of total household and business water use – whoa! This compares with just 10% in the bathroom and 7% in the kitchen and laundry combined!
- How do I know if the property has a leak?
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It can be quite tricky with rental properties to find leaks as tenants that aren’t responsible for their own water bills may not be inclined to let you, or their landlord, know about a suspected leak. As they don’t see the water bill, they are probably unaware of the amount of water that is being used or unusual spikes in water use.
- Is there anything available I can send to my customers?
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Yes!
Send your landlords and renters an email with the link ‘how to find and fix leaks’.
- Can I do a leak check during inspections?
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Of course. It’s as simple as 1,2,3…
Step 1: Ask people in the home not to use water while you do the test, and make sure that there is no water being used i.e. the washing machine is not on.
Step 2: Go to the water meter and take a reading of the last two red digits on the water meter - write down or take a photo of the reading.
Step 3: Wait 5 minutes – remember not to use any water during this time. Take a reading of the last two digits in red. If there was any movement of the dial, the property may have a leak - even the smallest movement can add up to a lot of wasted water over a year.
- There are no leaks on the property, are there other ways to reduce my property owners’ water bill?
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Yes! Contacting one of our specialist irrigators for a Garden Tune Up.
To assist residents to be more water efficient in their gardens Living Water Smart offers a Garden Tune Up rebate.
Living Water Smart's Garden Tune Up provides a free garden irrigation audit and water efficient gardening advice by one of our registered local irrigators*.
The Garden Tune Up usually takes around one hour and includes:
- A seasonal water smart irrigation schedule for the garden, including run times and days per week etc. The irrigator will also set the program.
- A review of the irrigation equipment and on-the-spot minor repairs up to the value of $50.
- Other general advice on water efficient gardening, such as plant types, plant zoning and water requirements, garden design, fertilisers, local soil types and mulches.
- Recommendations about smart controllers and other technologies to further improve the garden irrigation and efficiency.
*Must be one of Living Water Smart’s registered irrigators to receive the rebate.
- The landlord lives interstate, how can I let them know about what’s on offer?
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Why not send them a link to the rebate when you shoot off your next email? All you need to do is send them a link to our Garden Tune Up rebate page.
Don’t forget to let them know that so long as they use our registered suppliers, there is no out of pocket expense to them unless repairs or upgrades are required beyond the rebate amount.*
*Any additional works will be quoted for and will require approval prior to going ahead.
- Can we use our own irrigators to claim the rebate?
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No. Living Water Smart is working with Darwin irrigations suppliers that have applied to be part of the program and meet Living Water Smart’s water efficiency criteria.
A full list of registered suppliers can be found here.
- Our recommended supplier is not on the list?
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No worries. You can use one of ours or alternatively, you can ask your contractor to contact us to find out how their business can benefit and how they can offer a value-added service to your customers through our rebate.
- Why do we need to save water in Darwin?
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Many people think that Darwin has an endless supply of water, but this is a myth. We are currently using more water than can be captured and supplied in the long term.
We are among the highest water users anywhere in Australia. An average household here uses 400,000 litres of water per year - that's around 1,100 litres of water per household each day. A lot of this water use is unnecessary and can be reduced whilst at the same time maintaining our great lifestyle and saving money on your customer’s bills!
