We have no water…
Beth Werner
– I am pleased to hear that the leakage protection is working as it should, says team coordinator Hans Lang, Søndervangsskolen in Hammel
There is no
water in the taps…
A remark that, strange as it may sound, actually makes Hans Lang happy.
– I know it sounds strange, but when staff here at Søndervangsskolen come running and point out the lack of water in the taps, I know that our DanTaet leakage protection system is working. And I can only be pleased about that, explains Hans Lang, team coordinator at Favrskov Municipality’s Real Estate Center
in South-West, for around 30 of the municipality’s sites, including Søndervangsskolen in Hammel.
The leak in the canteen kitchen
One Monday morning at about 06.30 not long ago, the SFO staff called Hans Lang
“There is no water”. Hans Lang got hold of a colleague who was nearby and hurried over to the technical room, where, as expected, he saw that the alarm had sounded and the leakage protection system on the domestic water supply had shut off the water.
– I can see that the alarm went off on Saturday evening at 19.47 and an SMS should have been sent to the colleague who was on duty, but during a recent window replacement, the telephone line was pinched and therefore the alarm was not sent to the guard as an SMS. Even if that had been the case, the one man on duty would probably not have found the leak that triggered the alarm, says Hans Lang and continues
– My staff and I are now starting the full-scale search, starting with the obvious places where there are toilets, washbasins and shower rooms. There were no leaks here, but at about 07.15 the canteen manager enters the canteen kitchen, where there appears to be a minor break in the water softener.
– Without the leak protection system, we would have been in a rather unfortunate situation, in the sense that the damage happened on a Saturday night and would only have been discovered on Monday morning when the school was repopulated. In the course of a day and a half, many liters of water can leak out. Without being able to put an exact figure on it, I would say several thousand liters. In addition to the water loss, we would also have been left with water-damaged walls and floors.
– Fortunately, this was not the case, thanks to the interlocking system,” emphasizes Hans Lang.
Call from the Insurance Department
The leak protection of the domestic water system at Søndervangsskolen was installed a year and a half ago and in that time Hans Lang has seen it in operation a number of times.
Without the leakage protection system, we would have been in a rather unfortunate situation
– These have mainly been taps that someone forgot to close and running toilets, even brand new ones. It’s a waste of water, which means something if the taps are not turned off immediately, says Hans Lang, who estimates that the school would have had a somewhat higher water consumption without the leakage protection system.
Søndervangsskolen had the district heating system leak-proofed at the same time as the domestic hot water system.
– It was the municipality’s insurance department, represented by Christina Ingerslev Stensgaard, who urged us to install leak protection.
40 year old school
Søndervangsskolen is 40 years old this year and in 1979 Hans Lang started as a janitor, as it was called back then.
Today, he is a team coordinator in South West with maintenance and repairs at around 30 of the municipality’s different sites.
– The sites cover schools, kindergartens, clubhouses, cultural centers and town halls, so there’s plenty to keep me and my seven team members busy. Many of the buildings, like Søndervangsskolen, are several decades old, and this of course also includes pipes and installations.
– Old water and district heating installations pose a significantly higher risk of breakage, even the larger ones. This is a risk that is difficult to hedge against. On the other hand, we can protect ourselves against consequential damage from breakage and, above all, waste of resources with simple and user-friendly leakage protection systems. We are doing this on more and more municipal buildings,” concludes Hans Lang.
Rubber boots can be useful in many contexts. But they are not needed in case of leaks, the leakage protection system takes care of that. – Safe, secure and resource-saving, says Hans Lang about the two leak detection systems installed at Søndervangsskolen one and a half years ago. Here he is seen at the domestic water system.
