Saving Water At Work
Whether it's an office, a factory, a hospital, a brewery, a hotel or restaurant or a school, the possibilities for saving precious water are all around you. If you see water being wasted, why not talk about it with your manager or the building maintenance and engineering staff? There are many case studies showing how simple water saving measures have paid for themselves in weeks or months. Stored and recycled rainwater could be used for many applications.
Here are some examples of what could be done in your work place. Many apply equally to all work sites. Even just a simple measure such as fitting a 'hippo' in toilet cisterns can help save precious water. You can get 'hippos' free from many water companies. Do it today and make a difference!
Offices and shops
- Monitor the water meter - if there's a night time flow, when no-one is around, there could be a leak or a tap or valve left on.
- Maintain taps and all water fixtures like urinals, cisterns, water heaters etc., dripping taps; worn washers and faulty seals can each waste many tens of litres a day. Tell someone about it to get it fixed.
- Fit timed tap controllers to the basins (percussion taps) which cut off
- Fit automatic and timed flushes to urinals, so that they only flush when needed, and not at night when no-one's using them
- Tall buildings might have excessive water pressure at the lower floors, which exaggerate leaks and wastage. Break tanks could be the answer automatically.
Catering and kitchens
- Reuse water and don't use running taps if you can help it. A running kitchen tap uses 10 litres a minute, enough to fill a bath in 8 minutes
- Fit spray head taps, these can reduce consumption by up to 70%
- Fit taps (percussion taps) which cut off automatically. Not only do they save water, they can save staff time and improve safety in a busy kitchen
- A fully loaded dishwasher uses less water, and is more hygienic
- Using a sink mounted water heater not only gives instant near boiling water but saves on wasted heat and wasted lukewarm water from the main hot water system
In hotels
- Ensuite facilities are a must in today's hotels, but are a major source of water use.
- Check the shower flow - a power shower uses up to 30 litres of water a minute - 5 litres a minute is fine for most people and you can change it by changing the shower head
- Fit water saving devices (hippos) to the toilet cisterns, or consider dual flush toilets; flushing can use up to 30% of our water usage
- Proper pipe insulation of hot pipes on the long pipe runs around a hotel not only saves energy, but it also saves on wasted lukewarm water running away
Swimming pools
- Coverage of your pool outside swimming hours could reduce evaporation as well as save energy
- Check the efficiency of your pool filters. Older types of sand filters need backwashing, and excess water may be used
- Check the efficiency of your automatic water sampling unit, check on its efficiency; regular, excess sampling uses up a lot of water
Industry
- Inefficient steam pipes circulation with poor lagging can waste water as condensed steam is vented automatically from condensate taps - steam costs more than 10 times ordinary mains water to produce
- Consider fitting sub-meters, to check usage in different processes - you could be amazed at the result
- Review the efficiency of your boiler water system, for example, draining away expensive demineralised water or through excess boiler blow down
- Consider whether cooling water be recycled rather than taken direct from the mains and allowed to drain away
- Switch off water cooling systems when the machinery is switched off at the end of a shift
- Check your vehicle washing system efficiency, instead of just using a permanently running hose why not consider installing a rainwater harvesting system which will provide water for vehicle washdown
These are just a few of the measures you could take. For more comprehensive advice visit www.envirowise.gov.uk.