Rob Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 Double Post. I did try to be clever when designing Selby College, as I tried an option for having thin but wide tanks in the actual roof, so that the gutters would directly fill them and then the toilets could be gravity fed, which eliminated electric costs and the cost of groundworks for an external tank, but the cost of the special tanks and the extra cost of increased size steelwork to carry the heavier roof far outweighed any saving in water rates. That idea died on the table, so to speak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted July 10, 2010 Share Posted July 10, 2010 United Utilities are "North West Water". Who did you work for Rob. You sound like my ideal customer. I design and sell rainwater harvesting systems amongst other things. There are mainly commercial, schools, football clubs etc. My specialist subject is boosting water up high rise buildings. Most of the rainwater projects we do are installed so that the building is given a "A" rating from Breeam. Most if not all rainwater systems are not going to give you any saving on your water charges after installation and maintenance charges are taken into account. You must also consider the cost of actually pumping the water around the building in the first place..... H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjp Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 Do you not need a hose pipe attached to them though? Yes you do but because the water is under pressure when it comes out it uses less water, so they don't come under a hose pipe ban. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a98pmalcolm Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 hold on sorry here... they have banned hose pipes..... like hose pipes you real out to water flowers and wash down cars with?? Thats the most retarded thing i have ever heard!! How do they loose water? if it water coming from the hoses in peoples homes those people are still paying for it... So either way the water companies are still making the money, the same way people would spend money using a dish washer ect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 Yes you do but because the water is under pressure when it comes out it uses less water, so they don't come under a hose pipe ban. Have you got any evidence of this? After checking numerous websites - wasing cars with anything but a bucket is illegal..... H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a98pmalcolm Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 After checking numerous websites - wasing cars with anything but a bucket is illegal..... H. Well thats screws up near on every valating company, i think i see every single one use a pressure washer lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted July 11, 2010 Share Posted July 11, 2010 Well thats screws up near on every valating company, i think i see every single one use a pressure washer lol The ban does not apply to commercial businesses..... I have been dying to clean our cars all day but I'll be buggered if I'm filling 20 buckets or so to rinse down properly, then again we have no idea how long this ban is going to last...FFS. Wierd thing is, my 3 year old left our bathroom tap running all night last night after he'd been to the loo..... It all goes to show just how impossible this ban is to enforce and also correct the problem, there will be those who will flout the ban, those who will use other methods of wasting water like having a bath instead of a shower and those who will accidentally waste loads of water with clumsy kids.... H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjp Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Have you got any evidence of this? After checking numerous websites - wasing cars with anything but a bucket is illegal..... H. Have just seen you can't wash your car, but can fill your swimming pool http://www.hozelock.com/press/hose-ban-can-can-ts.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt H Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Yes you do but because the water is under pressure when it comes out it uses less water, so they don't come under a hose pipe ban. Isn't it just swings and roundabouts though? more pressure / coming out faster = same amount of water? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Wellllll, if you run a pressure washer without the pump actually on, only a tiny trickle comes out the end, so I presume it uses less water per minute than a normal hosepipe at mains pressure. Or it might be that having the pump running allows it to cycle more volume of water through. I don't know. Look, this is England, we don't have water problems, just stupid councils. I don't think any media should use the word "drought" until crops have failed and people are dying in the fields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Pressure washers use far less water than a hosepipe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpie Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 What's the normal flow rate of a domestic tap ? 600 l/hr My Karcher only uses 400 l/hr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt H Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 What's the normal flow rate of a domestic tap ? 600 l/hr My Karcher only uses 400 l/hr. I had a google, but there's not much info. There's stuff like 'pressure washers use less water', but I couldn't find any data during my brief search. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpie Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 From their website: How the ban improves the situation Hosepipes and sprinklers use an incredible amount of water - left running they use more water in an hour than a family of four uses in a day. We estimate that if everyone sticks to the ban we will save the equivalent of 15 million toilet flushes a day. So, that's more than 600 l/hr then. (see post #1) Pressure washers do use less than a standard hose pipe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpie Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 still part of the though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpie Posted July 20, 2010 Author Share Posted July 20, 2010 I swear that every day since the ban it's poured down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Ian Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I swear that every day since the ban it's poured down! I can confirm this too !! not stopped for a week now i bet its not the "right" type of rain tho eh lol Cheers -Ian- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitesupraboy2 Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I think we had a spit of rain the other day but other then that its been hot today with some cloud and sun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil-NA Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 I think we had a spit of rain the other day but other then that its been hot today with some cloud and sun. Want to swap houses? 2 weeks of almost non stop rain oop North. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharpie Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 http://www.unitedutilities.com/6748.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havard Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Thank fook for that...!! It's been really getting up my nose the fact that I have had to wash my cars with a bucket. I use a lot more water filling buckets and chucking them over the car than I use when I rinse down with a hose..... H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOF7Y Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 The only reason there was a ban in the first place is because United Utilities is (excuse my french) crap! they are in amongst the 3 worst water company's in the country. If they concentrated more on leakage then they wouldn't have to issue out a hose pipe ban + i saw on the television the other week that a customer phoned them up to report a leak, a technician got sent out, investigated and then a year later nothing had been done / the leak was still there. Thing is to improve there mains network they need more money but Ofwat wont give it to them due to there performance figures so to save money they are throwing out hose pipe bands.. just flaunt it, its there own fault not yours I work for Essex & Suffolk Water (in the leakage department funny enough) and even though we are the driest county in the country we haven't needed to issue a hose pipe ban in 3 or so years because are leakage is so low, low enough that its kept us amongst the top 3 water company's in the country for god knows how long. So if you want to carry on washing your cars with hose pipes and not have to worry about bans move down south lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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