How is water intensity calculated?

Water intensity is total water intake divided by production for the same months: mains plus groundwater plus other intake, in cubic metres, over output in the unit you set. A month with 10,500 m3 of intake and 4,600 kL of product has an intensity of 2.28 m3 per kL, which is the same as 2.28 litres of water per litre of product.

How does the workbook find leaks?

It compares intake with the sum of the sub-meters for the same months. Water that no sub-meter sees is unmetered: leaks, faulty meters or uses nobody metered. The Dashboard shows the unmetered share against the limit you set on Setup, and the monthly table shows it month by month, so a step change points to when a leak started.

Can I enter gallons instead of cubic metres?

Yes. Choose the volume unit on Setup: m3, kL, L, US gallons or imperial gallons. Every volume on both logs is typed in that unit and converted exactly to m3 for the calculations (1 US gal = 3.785411784 L, 1 imperial gal = 4.54609 L). The values you typed stay as you typed them.

Is recycled water counted as intake?

No. Recycled water is water recovered on site and used again, for example a CIP final rinse reused as the next pre-rinse. It reduces intake rather than adding to it. The reuse share is recycled water over intake plus recycled water, the share of all the water used that was used a second time.

How is cost per unit calculated?

Cost per unit is the month's supply charges plus wastewater charges divided by its production. With 48,500 of water charges and 320,000 units produced, cost per unit is 0.1516, the same answer as the Industrial Water Cost Per Unit calculator with an allocation factor of 1.

Energy and Sustainability

Water Use Tracker Excel Template

Log monthly water intake, recycled water, discharge, charges and sub-meter readings, and see water per unit of output, cost per unit, reuse share and how much water no meter accounts for.

Overview

This water use tracker is a working Excel workbook for plant, utilities and EHS managers in food and beverage, chemical and other plants where water is a real cost and a reporting line. It ships with a fictional year of data for a juice and soft drinks bottler, so the dashboard and charts are populated when you open it; replace the example rows with your own and everything recalculates.

Each month is one row: intake from the mains, your own borehole or other sources, water recovered and used again, wastewater discharged, the supply and wastewater charges and the month's production. Volumes are typed in the unit your meters use and converted exactly to cubic metres. Intensity is intake per unit of output, cost per unit is the month's water charges over its production (the same formula as the Industrial Water Cost Per Unit calculator on this site), and every multi-month figure is formed from sums, so a short month does not distort the year.

In practice, enter the month's bills and meter readings and review the dashboard in your utilities or sustainability meeting. The intensity chart shows whether a change such as CIP rinse recovery is paying off, the cost chart splits supply from wastewater charges, and the unmetered water tile compares the main meters with the sum of the sub-meters: in the example, a leak on a buried main shows up as a jump in unmetered water in June.

What this template includes

Monthly Water table: intake from mains, groundwater and other sources, recycled water, discharge, supply and wastewater charges and production, one row per month
Volume unit choice on Setup (m3, kL, L, US gallons or imperial gallons) with exact conversion to m3; what you type is never changed
Per-month intake, consumption, water intensity per unit of output with a status word against your target, cost per m3, cost per unit and reuse share
Sub-meters table for each use area (process, CIP, boiler, cooling tower, domestic) with each meter's share of intake
Check columns that name problems in words: discharge above intake, duplicate months, meters adding up to more than intake, meter not on the list
Dashboard for any 12 months: intake, intensity, cost and cost per unit tiles, recycled share, share returned as wastewater, cost per m3 and unmetered water against a limit
Four native charts: intake by source, intensity by month against target, water cost by month and where the water goes by sub-meter
Method sheet with every formula, and a Verify sheet that re-checks the workbook against an independent reference, including the Industrial Water Cost Per Unit calculator's example

Suggested use case

Use it to baseline water use before a reduction project, to watch a CIP or cooling tower change pay off month by month, to spot leaks from the gap between the main meter and the sub-meters, or to report water intensity in a sustainability review.

How to use it

On Setup, enter your plant name, currency, the volume unit your meters use, your unit of output, the intensity target and the unmetered water limit.
Replace the example sub-meters with your own use areas.
On Monthly Water, add one row per month from the bills and main meters, with the month's production.
On Sub-meters, add each meter's volume for the month.
Fix anything the Check columns flag, then open the Dashboard and pick the 12 months to show.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is water intensity calculated?: Water intensity is total water intake divided by production for the same months: mains plus groundwater plus other intake, in cubic metres, over output in the unit you set. A month with 10,500 m3 of intake and 4,600 kL of product has an intensity of 2.28 m3 per kL, which is the same as 2.28 litres of water per litre of product.
How does the workbook find leaks?: It compares intake with the sum of the sub-meters for the same months. Water that no sub-meter sees is unmetered: leaks, faulty meters or uses nobody metered. The Dashboard shows the unmetered share against the limit you set on Setup, and the monthly table shows it month by month, so a step change points to when a leak started.
Can I enter gallons instead of cubic metres?: Yes. Choose the volume unit on Setup: m3, kL, L, US gallons or imperial gallons. Every volume on both logs is typed in that unit and converted exactly to m3 for the calculations (1 US gal = 3.785411784 L, 1 imperial gal = 4.54609 L). The values you typed stay as you typed them.
Is recycled water counted as intake?: No. Recycled water is water recovered on site and used again, for example a CIP final rinse reused as the next pre-rinse. It reduces intake rather than adding to it. The reuse share is recycled water over intake plus recycled water, the share of all the water used that was used a second time.
How is cost per unit calculated?: Cost per unit is the month's supply charges plus wastewater charges divided by its production. With 48,500 of water charges and 320,000 units produced, cost per unit is 0.1516, the same answer as the Industrial Water Cost Per Unit calculator with an allocation factor of 1.