Total water and electricity bills go up when a restaurant gets busier, that alone tells you nothing about efficiency. Divide consumption by covers served and you get a number that is actually comparable across months, seasons and even similar outlets.
Water or energy per cover = total consumption for the period divided by total covers served in that same period.
| Water consumed (period) | 500000 L |
| Energy consumed (period) | 12000 kWh |
| Total covers served (period) | 9000 |
Full-service restaurants commonly fall around 20-40 litres of water and 1.5-3 kWh of energy per cover, though this varies a lot with kitchen equipment, dishwashing method and air-conditioning load.
Air-conditioning and refrigeration load rise sharply with ambient temperature, even at the same covers served, so a summer spike in energy per cover is common and doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong.
Leak checks on taps and pipes, dishwasher load optimization, and equipment maintenance (clean condenser coils, tight door seals on fridges) tend to give the fastest, cheapest improvement before any bigger capital investment.