Water usage

[nod]

I've been asked to complete an online online water usage report

Can anyone point me in the right direction

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by jack

[Onoff]

Any use?

 

https://www.nwl.co.uk/your-home/your-account/usage-calculator.aspx

[ragg987]

Linky

 

[Mr Punter]

When you submit the rest of the stuff for the final inspection (air tests, elec and gas certs etc) you also submit a statement confirming that "Water consumption is less than 125 litres/person/day using fittings approach".  You no longer need to do the calculator.

[joe90]

1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

When you submit the rest of the stuff for the final inspection (air tests, elec and gas certs etc) you also submit a statement confirming that "Water consumption is less than 125 litres/person/day using fittings approach".  You no longer need to do the calculator.

 

I am glad of that, I do know my bath (great big roll top) would not pass regs (I think I remember regs cover bath size/water usage) and if the BI pulls me up on it I will tell him I will put in a tiny bath, get it signed off then simply put my lovely bath back in!!! (He has been great so far so don’t think it will be an issue. ?

[Jeremy Harris]

I had endless hassle over water usage, with a PITA "old school" building inspector, who not only made me fit restrictors everywhere, but also insisted that I provide evidence (in the form of photographs) that I had done so.

 

I complied with all his requests, filled in the calculator, printed everything out to prove that every outlet, WC etc complied with the regs (despite us having a borehole private supply, so not needing to comply with water regs anyway) and had them all lined up on the kitchen work surface for the final completion inspection.  The head of building control turned out to do this, and wasn't the slightest bit interested in water consumption, as he said it didn't apply to anyone with a private supply (something I'd been arguing over for weeks).

 

I actually left some of the restrictors in place, as they are pretty good at reducing splashing from taps.  One major error I made was accidentally leaving the shower flow restrictor in place.  SWMBO was less than impressed with a 6 litre/minute shower, but was too polite to mention it.  I spotted it straight away and removed it, and now all is well in the world...

[epsilonGreedy]

I have been puzzled as to why the forum collectively has little enthusiasm with regard to water conservation but chasing small incremental gains in thermal performance is not questioned.

[Mr Punter]

6 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

I have been puzzled as to why the forum collectively has little enthusiasm with regard to water conservation but chasing small incremental gains in thermal performance is not questioned.

 

Our last house (1950s which had no special water efficiency measures) was detached with garden and occupied us - a family of 4.  The water company would regularly send a bill with usage information that we were using the equiv of 2 people in a 1 bed flat.  Maybe we just lack personal hygiene.

[PeterW]

45 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

I have been puzzled as to why the forum collectively has little enthusiasm with regard to water conservation but chasing small incremental gains in thermal performance is not questioned.

 

Most of the water regs maximum limits were pushed through with the changes to the Water Act - it’s essentially a supply / demand thing and there was a belief that legislation would force behavioural change. The biggest issue is that it’s not new housing stock that is the problem - most new builds will have WCs (largest use of water in a house) that now have 6/4 or 4/2 cisterns, whereas older stock is stuck with 8/10 and sometimes larger cisterns. 

 

It was also recognised that it’s reasonably pointless to try and “force” a decision on water as when you look at most properties, the regulation allowances are so high (125l/person/day) then using pretty much standard off the shelf components easily met this requirement - a 3 bed house would need to be using 185 cubic metres per annum to exceed this as an example. 

 

Water as a resource is “too cheap” and shows no signs of the dramatic price increases you see with other utilities as it’s in reasonably plentiful supply and, with the coming deregulation of the domestic market, will only get cheaper. 

[epsilonGreedy]

But most Buildhubbers wish to surpass thermal regs by a large margin but not water consumption regs. Does this make sense financially?

 

For example would a tap aerator fitted to the 4 highest use hot and cold taps save more than the same investment in combating cold bridges? I assume the old hands here did the calcs 10 years ago on another forum and concluded not.

[PeterW]

Taps are the lowest use of any water device in a property - dwarfed by the use of WCs. If you look at what is available, short of moving to composting toilets then you would save probably £30-40 a year with the latest low flush pans and cisterns. 

[Jeremy Harris]

Showers also use a heck of a lot of water, often more than a bath.  One problem is that a shower that flows less than about 9 or 10 litres per minute seems a bit feeble for many, although there are plenty of people that happily live with electric showers that struggle to deliver 4 litres per minute, so I expect it depends what you're used to.

 

I'm not at all fussed about water conservation, as we draw water out from the aquifer under our house and discharge treated waste water to the brook alongside, so our environmental impact is tiny when compared to anyone using mains water and drainage.

 

As @PeterW rightly says, mains water is far too cheap.  If we want to change behaviour then it needs to be made more expensive.

[joe90]

I was lambasted years ago on another forum for having a power shower but I take a lot less time in it than most people which does not seem to count. I would rather spend 3 minutes in a decent shower than 10 in a poor one.

[Simplysimon]

1 hour ago, epsilonGreedy said:

But most Buildhubbers wish to surpass thermal regs by a large margin but not water consumption regs. Does this make sense financially?

 

For example would a tap aerator fitted to the 4 highest use hot and cold taps save more than the same investment in combating cold bridges? I assume the old hands here did the calcs 10 years ago on another forum and concluded not.

living in Scotand on the west coast, water supply has never been an issue, plenty falls fro the sky. i do appreciate things may change in the future and according to climate change, Britain is going to get warmer and wetter unless you live in the SE.

[ProDave]

A few general comments in no particular order.

 

The "save water" thing is mostly applicable to highly populated conurbations with huge numbers of people in one place and limited water resources.  Up here water is so plentiful and population so sparse, it is never going to be a problem.

 

Modern WC's that are designed to flush with a low volume work very well indeed.  I recall fitting a "water hippo" kindly provided free of charge by Thames Water to an old WC in our 1930's house.  It was an absolute disaster. "things" just did not clear from the old WC when the amount of flush was limited, so you had to wait for it to fill and flush again and again and again.  The only answer is a WC actually designed for a low volume flush.

 

For some reason there was a time when dual flush WC's were discouraged. Why? You don't need much of a flush when you have just had a pee.

 

Showers.  A decent flow rate shower lets you shower quickly.  I am still amazed at how little time SWMBO now spends under her rainfall shower head compared to how long she spent in the dribble of a shower when we were in the caravan. Apparently it took ages to get the soap out of her hair under the dribble.

 

For some odd reason water Co's and planners seem to think if you have 4 WC;s and 3 showers the same familly of 3 will use more water than if you only had one of each?

 

Much more saving can be done by simple education. Don't leave a tap running when not in use etc. Only put the dishwasher on when it is FULL that may mean it does not go on every day.

 

You don't need a restrictor to limit flow from a tap. A tap is not a binary device, it can be anywhere from full on to full off and anywhere in between.  See above, people need to learn when to turn a tap down, rather than be forced to have a tap that will only ever run slow.

 

I am sure a lot of water is wasted waiting for the hot water to reach a tap.  I made layout changes and careful pipework choices to minimise that.

 

In areas where water supply is restricted (another way of saying the population has exceeded sustainable levels but still they squeeze more in) there might be merit is catching grey water and using it a second time for flushing the WC.

 

Rainwater harvesting will only in the grand scheme of things limit the water getting to a river and deplete the already available supply, so really it just saves the water Co some treatment cost, it cannot have a big impact in solving a shortage of supply.

 

[joe90]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

For some odd reason water Co's and planners seem to think if you have 4 WC;s and 3 showers the same familly of 3 will use more water than if you only had one of each?

 

Yes, I had four toilets in my last house and someone said “gosh you must use a lot of water!”. I was speechless (for once).