June 09, 2015 -
Design / Build
David Schwartz is the founder and president of The Water Scrooge, a New York-based leader in water and hot water conservation firm.
The Water Scrooge was founded in 2010 by Schwartz, who realized that water has become a global issue and nothing revolutionary has yet to happen within the real estate industry; four patents later Schwartz has innovated in an industry that has long been uncreative.
As every landlord and manager knows, water and energy costs are getting expensive and are being increased year after year. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 was a federal regulation that required shower heads deliver no more than 2.5 gallons per minute. That is why most shower heads come with a restrictor already inside. This restrictor limits the amount of water coming out thereby lowering your energy costs. Conceptually brilliant, the only issue is the human element. Tenants know about the restrictors so they simply take them out, and we are back to square one.
There are many different methods to restrict water flow; the predominant one is the shower head. When a landlord installs new shower heads that restrict water flow he not only flushes money down the drain, he does so three or even fourfold. Why? Because not only has he spent the money on buying and installing the showerheads, once removed, his water usage goes up to 2-3x his previous usage.
This has not only left landlords and property managers with the inability to get their water usage down, often landlords see their water usage going up after attempting to install the solutions currently available in the market.
Another issue that's important to note, is that on average 65% of the property's water usage is hot water. This means that on top of the cost of the water itself, this excess usage is costing property owners and managers additional oil/gas to heat the water in their boilers.
What Schwartz has found is that all this results in an average family of three, consuming an additional 40,000 gallons of water per year above normal usage. This results in costing the property owner, on average an extra $500 per year, per unit.
What Schwartz figured out and has since patented, is the only guaranteed tamper-proof water regulator currently on the market. The restrictor is not seen by the tenant and cannot be removed by them even if they watched the entire installation. This has resulted in massive, sustained savings for his clients.
Schwartz's company, The Water Scrooge, sells and installs tamper proof solutions for the entire unit. That's showers, sinks and toilet tanks too. Whether it is an apartment building, a dormitory, or a hotel, The Water Scrooge's patented solutions are the most cost effective on the market.
Schwartz has installed his solutions in over 40,000 units. One of their larger projects, completed last year was Parkchester Condominiums. Their property consisted of 169 buildings, with a combined total of 12,286 condominium units. "At the present we are enjoying overall water and hot water saving's between 20 and 25%," said Mark Miller director of operations for Parkchester South Condominiums in a letter of recommendation.
He is not only saving landlords hundreds of thousands of dollars annually he is also saving the planet. You should give him a call and see how he can save you money.