At present, water mains are used for about half of the daily water consumption when it is not always necessary to use quality drinking water. When you consider that, even after the summers of 2007 and 2008, many areas of the UK are under what is termed “water stress” – this is incredibly wasteful. Official pressure is now on to replace water mains with rainwater to try and relieve this water stress. It is now necessary to use methods to cut back on water consumption. There are three ways in which to do this, which are: – change your behaviour, use water-efficient appliances such as double flush WCs, and use rainwater from available roofs. These are efficient and logical steps to take. Also, noticeable financial savings can be made in meeting these mandatory requirements. The first investment will be recouped, if not straightaway, at least soon enough to make it worthwhile.
Quality water mains are not necessary for supplying WCs and washing machines or for outdoor use, such as irrigation or cleaning. WC use represents about 20 to 30% of water mains consumption. This percentage rises considerably in schools where there is less bathing and showering. So using rainwater in schools primarily for toilet flushing is very advantageous.
Here are some examples. In a recent quote for a primary school, it was calculated that on a WC usage of 420 children and adults, the school can save @ £1700 per annum in water rates. With equipment costing £7500, which equates to a pay back in four years six months. This tallies with installations done by Stormsaver in primary schools where the estimated savings each year on water costs are between £1000 and £1500.
Capital funding now has a condition that new build or refurbishment projects must attain a “VERY GOOD” rating under the BREEAM schools scheme. The requirement covers all major new-build and refurbishment projects valued at over £500,000 (primary schools) and £2million (secondary schools). For refurbishment, this must cover more than 10% of the floor area. There are smaller schemes which may be suitable for formal BREEAM assessment too. Credits are awarded in ten categories and include water for consumption, leak detection, re-use and recycling. When planning, a sum of the estimated water use – m3/person/year must be made and the percentage of this water use to be provided by rainwater or greywater.
When considering that contractors are already on site for a new school or major refurbishment, rainwater harvesting systems are not very costly or difficult to install. They can certainly contribute towards economizing on overall running costs.
Rainwater Harvesting Limited supplies rainwater harvesting storage tanks, pumps, filters and management systems to households and commercial businesses. Rainwaterharvesting.co.uk is a large information resource offering valuable technical information and advice in addition to 1000s of product specifications. Download the invaluable rainwater harvesting tank size calculator
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