Lifecycle costs in dialysis water treatment
The base for a decision for buying water treatment systems usually is the purchase price of the system.
This is a small part of the total lifecycle costs only.
Life cycle costs contents acquisition costs, operation costs1, costs for service and maintenance as well as other costs (e.g. water analysis, consumables, etc.)
The following example shows the share of the several costs.
The base for the calculation is a dialysis centre with 15,600 treatments per year and a medium inlet water quality (inlet water has to be softened and particles and chlorine have to be removed).
Energy, water and salt costs are average values.
Lifecycle costs for a dialysis centre with a conventional water treatment system:
Operating of
- Sand filter
- Carbon filter
- Softener with volume control
- Reverse Osmosis System
generates costs of 38,000 Euro per year by the consumption of energy and water.
During a lifecycle of 10 years the total operation costs are 380,000 Euro.
The acquisition costs for a highly sophisticated water treatment system are approx. 60,000 Euro.
Costs for service and maintenance are approx. 5,000 Euro and other costs are 4,000 Euro per year.
The following chart shows the share of the various costs:
Lifecycle Costs for a dialysis centre with DWA water treatment systems
Operating with
- DWA Cartridge filter (no water and energy consumption)
- DWA Chlorine filter (no water consumption)
- Softener with quality control
- Reverse Osmosis System (modula S-XL with ECO-Mode)
generates costs of approx. 23,000 Euro per year by the consumption of energy and water.
Possible savings: 15,000 Euro per year
Therefore the water treatment system will be amortised within 4 years. After 10 years cost savings of approx. 90,000 Euro will be implemented.
As the DWA water treatment systems are made of stainless steel the lifecycle is much longer than 10 years. This ensures a higher potential saving.
With the adequate water treatment systems costs can be saved and the environment can be protected.
1Operation costs depends on many factors (e.g. inlet water quality, type and configuration of the reverse osmosis system, etc.). So we can give approximate values only.