Paying Too Much for Water?

People don't usually consider water as a resource, but it is exactly that. You pay for it, you use it, then you pay for someone to clean it. The cost of fresh water is relatively high, when you think it is essential.

Businesses in specific can both improve their water efficiency and cut their bills substantially by taking simple, uncostly measures. Some of these are listed below:

1. Push button faucets. Instead of the standard turn or raise faucets, push down valves can be installed. This will regulate flow through the tap and limits the amount of time the tap is on. These are cheap to buy and cheap to install and it will mean that a tap is never left running.

2. Specialised shower heads. If there are showers on your premises, shower heads which restrict flow through can be installed. Again, these are cheap and easy to put into place and are designed to reduce the amount of flow without losing the pressure in your shower. Staff will most likely not notice any change.

3. Toilet cistern displacers. A bag or bottle filled with water and sealed (up to a volume of around 3 litres) can be placed inside the cistern of your toilet leaving less volume for water to fill after a flush. Therefore, the next flush will use less water and the cistern will fill up less each time. Again, a cheap and effective way to reduce water use by 3 litres per flush.

4. Waterless urinals. Urinals which don't flush are now commonplace in public toilets and aren't considered any less hygeinic than normal. They do not use any water and are not supplied by a plumbing system so maintenance is virtually non-existant.

5. An instant hot water device in staff kitchens will reduce the load on kettles and the waster produced by manually overfilling and cleaning kettles. Although the initial costs will be high, so make sure you determine the payback period before pursuing.

6. A dishwasher. A fully loaded dishwasher uses less water per piece of crockery than hand washing and is far more hygeinic. Again, initial costs will be relatively high but if demand on water for dishwashing is high then there ought to be a short payback period.

7. Rainwater harvesting. If your business is situated in a particularly rainy area, water harvesting is a great way to retain FREE water and use it for purposes that usually cost. It isn't drinkable, but it can be used in toilets and washing machines after only basic treatment.