Janet's water-saving information

One member of the Eco House Group has sent me some practical information about her experiences of fitting water-saving devices in her home.

An alternative to getting a new low flush loo, or using the simple brick or hippo in the cistern is to fit a variable flush device to the existing toilet.

Janet says 

"The variable flush device is called Interflush. It has a website: http://www.interflush.co.uk/.  

I also found the following:

http://www.mygreenerhome.co.uk/water-savers-5/interflush-toilet-water-saving-device-1.html

http://blog.ooffoo.com/blogs/2009/03/06/Review-The-Interflush-a-flush-inhibitor/

It says a competent DIY person should be able to fit it, though I had a builder do it.  So far, there have been no problems with it, though I think the builder said it needed some careful adjustment. 

It appears to come in 2 versions: £14.95, with installation tools, and £12.95 without the tools (for the 2^nd toilet you can use the same tools again).  We still have the box with the tools - If anyone wants to borrow the tools, they’d be welcome.  There is a screw driver, 2 other things that look like tools, plus what appear to be some parts that weren’t needed and the instructions.

We now also have a ‘grey water’ system for that toilet, which uses mainly rainwater water collected from our roof and drive.  (The plumber calls it grey water, as it could be contaminated, and has labelled all the pipes accordingly).  We have mains backup using a tank with 2 ball valves.  The plumber advised having the mains valve on a trickle to avoid things seizing up during long periods when not using it.  So far (since late Autumn) the stored rainwater has held out but I suspect we’ll need mains sometimes in the summer."

Low-flush toilets

There are many low-flush toilets now available, but watch out - some suffer from the problem of leaky drop valves.

At Monday’s event on saving water, Jon mentioned the 'interflush' water saving device for toilets with a traditional siphon flushing cistern. There's a lot of information about it on the website, including pictures, diagrams etc.:

Since postage is free when ordering more than one, Jon would be interested in putting in a shared order if anyone else is thinking of getting one. If you might be, just email info@wbecohouses.co.uk for more info.

Alternatively, if you are thinking of getting a new toilet, there are leak-free low flush toilets available - try the ES4 (a 4 litre single flush available from the Green Building Store.

Ways to Save Water

The 4th in a series of events held at South Notts College in Ruddington focused on saving water in the home. Here is a short summary of the talks, and some useful facts are listed below. It’s a big topic so just a small selection included here.

Tina Holt gave an overview. In summary, water-saving habits really make a huge difference in the amount of water consumed in the home. Hot water has a much higher carbon footprint than cold water (about 5 times higher), so cut your heating bills and save carbon by insulating taps and pipes and using hot water carefully.

David Roe explained his home-made rainwater harvesting system, which supplies water to toilets, washing machine and dishwasher. To buy such a system new would be very expensive and is not as eco-friendly as it seems. However, using reused tanks and some basic pipework, this home-made approach has a very low carbon footprint.

Ian Mumford showed how to avoid paying the surface drainage charge by re-directing all the water from his roof into water-butts, and from there via pipes across his garden. There would be a big environmental benefit if every house with a garden could do this, because after heavy rain, water falling on the house and driveway normally flows rapidly into the drains and rivers and can cause flooding. However, when this water is diverted into the garden, instead of adding to the flooding problem, it feeds the local soil and sub-soil. From here it can make its way gradually into rivers, lakes and groundwater – which are all sources of our mains water supply.

Gil Shalom shared 10 years’ experience of saving water in a retrofit eco-home. Surprisingly, simple water saving habits and low flush toilets were his top tips, along with shorter showers.

Watch out – many types of low flush toilets leak from the cistern into the loo and waste huge amounts of water. If you are looking for a leak-free low flush loo, try the ES4 (a 4 litre single flush available from the Green Building Store).

If you are careful with water, being on a water meter may be cheaper than the rate-based water bill. (Try to estimate your water use accurately for a week and estimate your likely bill from the pricing information on the Severn Trent website). Or instead, try this simple water calculator: http://www.ccwater.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.388 All you need to do is download the excel document and go to the “Severn Trent” tab.