There are moderate costs associated with installing a conductivity meter and controls, but this equipment has a payback period ranging from less than one year to as little as two years through reduced water bills, and will immediately help to reduce potable water consumption.

Updating your preventive maintenance plan to include regular inspections and maintenance of cooling tower controls is a good practice.

Automatic control modulates bleed-off to match the actual evaporation rate, which is far more water-efficient than using fixed bleed rates. 

Install and maintain a conductivity meter and automatic controls to adjust the bleed rate and maintain proper concentrations at all times.

Vendors are usually happy to work with you in developing a compliant water management plan and typically offer onsite staff training as part of their services at little to no additional charge.

Staff training is often a weak point for vendors who otherwise do a good job of documenting their services and procedures for chemical treatment, bleed-off, and biological control. Make sure that you collaborate with your vendor to develop adequate staff training procedures for building staff responsible for daily cooling tower maintenance. Unless cooling tower management is completely outsourced, staff training is required, even if your onsite staff is only performing minor monitoring and inspection duties.

Work with your existing cooling tower management contractor to develop a written water management plan. Existing contract language may meet some or all of the plan criteria. Carefully compare the contract and existing procedural documents with the plan criteria described in the LEED Reference Guide, developing additional detail as needed in order to meet the requirements. Submitting the contract alone as LEED documentation may not provide enough information.

This option does not require that your water management plan meet any particular environmental standards or thresholds, but only that you have a detailed plan that is written specifically for your cooling tower in order to optimize water management.

Implement a water-management plan for the cooling tower that addresses the following areas:

Chemical treatment—Describe the chemicals and procedures used to treat cooling tower water to an appropriate quality.

Bleed-off—Describe the procedures and appropriate set points for effective use of a conductivity meter and controls to automatically adjust the bleed rate of cooling tower water. Proper automatic adjustment of the bleed rate will help maintain proper concentrations and conserve water.

WEc4.1: Chemical Management