Community Water Softening Using An Automatic Brine Tank

National Luthern, Village at Orchard Ridge, Winchester, VA

Situation

A National Corporation planning the construction of a new residential housing and care community in a hard water area was seeking the most efficient method of providing soft water to the entire community. An analysis of prior operations revealed many cost-saving opportunities if they installed a central water conditioning facility that would house the main brine tank for regeneration. They determined that the cost of softening the water for all the facilities would eliminate the high cost of man-hours required to deliver small quantities of salt to the individual cottages, as well as, apartments, a commons area, and special care facilities.

Challenge

  • Design a central water conditioning system
  • Provide for ample water supply for fire suppression
  • Size the softeners to allow for community growth
  • Provide cost savings, risk management and reduce environmental impact
  • Eliminate the storage space needed for a large number of pallets of salt

Solution

The Project Manager worked with a design engineering firm to design a central water conditioning system to provide softened water to the community. This was accomplished by constructing a water softener vault to house the softener bank. To meet local codes, a bypass was installed on the water main supplying the softeners to ensure adequate water for fire suppression. The engineering firm collaborated with the softener manufacturer and The Cope Company Salt (TCCS) for salt supply to the water softener. Once the softeners were sized, TCCS provided the proper size AUTOBrine® System.

A central softener and the AUTOBrine® allowed for the elimination of handling bagged salt and it was more cost-effective than installing and maintenance softeners at each of the 140 locations where soft water was required.

Results

  • >$15,000 Operations Cost Savings Annually
  • >16,000 lbs. Carbon Footprint reduction to date
  • Elimination of the need for 1,200 sq. ft. receiving and storage space
  • $25,000 salt handling equipment savings