water saving

harryhound

I actually found this gizmo a bit useful.

I have a bath that dates back to the 1970's, everything still works and the Chrome is as good as new.

However, a shower involves standing under the spray head from the mixer taps slotted into a bracket screwed to the wall.

The mixer taps must be "illegal" in that they mix cold at mains pressure with hot at the pressure of a tank in the roof of a bungalow.

They also have no "non return" or cut off valves fitted to the hot and cold feeds - replacing the washer involves turning off the cold in the street and/or tying up the ball c0ck in the tank in the loft :eek:(but that is another story.)

As a result of having the differences in hot and cold feed pressures, having a shower means turning on the hot to maximum and then edging on the cold to move from scalding hot to freezing cold within a fraction of a turn.

Fitting the "restrictor" to the top of the mixer tap has made a marginal improvement in the ease of adjusting the temperature.

Harry.

PS I'm just back from a holiday in a "third world" country - its plumbing standards were "Spanish". This meant that almost every loo tended to drip continuously, because it was fitted with a "flap" system (now legal in the UK ) rather than the British syphon system. I find it somewhat pointless for the British to be saving the planet by showering in a cup less water, when poor over populated countries are dribbling away their precious "drinking" water through faulty plumbing.

skyepark

yeah cant use the shower, its missing a rubber round thing, otherwise the water spurted out of the sides! useless, nice shower hear, hey previous poseter, my flat's water is how you described as well, very hot and can't get a warm,,,, how can this be fixed?

harryhound

skyepark wrote: »

yeah cant use the shower, its missing a rubber round thing, otherwise the water spurted out of the sides! useless, nice shower hear, hey previous poseter, my flat's water is how you described as well, very hot and can't get a warm,,,, how can this be fixed?

If your hot water is coming from an immersion heated tank, you could turn down the immersion heater thermostat until the "hot" water is cool enough for a shower. (This means there is less heat stored in the hot water tank for (say) washing up/bathing and theoretically you should turn it up to a high heat once a week to avoid Legionnaires disease breading in the water.)

If you have a tap, rather than a quarter turn valve, you could experiment with a different design of washer that does not so abruptly turn from off to on.

Finally don't forget to do something like inverting the washing up bowl over the taps in the kitchen to avoid someone else using the taps when you are showering.

Alternatively you plumbing pressures might support a fancy new proper thermostatic mixing shower - my daughter fitted one of those when she lived in what was virtually "a house in multiple occupation".

skyepark

thanks a lot, we've for a thermostat to change the temp of the water and have been keeping it low but will turn it up once a week.

redpete

I got one of these devices in the post the other day. I hope it's not funded by government, my utility bills, or other grants. I assumed it was sent to get people to order stuff from their website.

If I want to restrict the flow of water through the shower I can just turn it down using the controls.

jerryd

Hi,

The unit I have doesn't restrict the flow by blocking the line. It's not like the plumber said see quote below. Mine appears to let in some air and whereas turning down my controls causes the shower to be useless and uncontrollable my shower saver has a manageable effect. These are probably not a a good idea for electric showers which in any case appear to have very low flow characteristics.

The plumber is of course missing the point. The people for whom he increases the flow rate probably also drive 4x4s. I don't think driving a 4x4 is a good idea and I don't think wasting water is a good idea. Not only does reducing the rate save water it saves the energy used heating the water. Even if you don't have a water meter you'll save money and saving money might not be your only incentive !!!!!!!!

Quote from plumber- "I am DISGUSTED that Martin is recommending these. As a plumber, I can safely say these are as useless as a chocolate teapot!

People employ me to increase the pressure and flow of their showers!

Do not use these on an electric shower as you could seriously damage it. These do nothing more than bung up the the hose of your shower - in the same way dirt or scale would. Imagine your £1,000 deluxe power shower having to push all that water through a much smaller hole - do you think it's going to last very long!

You can only use this on a shower connected to your taps, but why bother, just turn the taps! (which funnily enough were invented to alter flow rate - doh!)"

Fairie

Hi all

Not sure if this is right as this is the first thread i have started, however I have just been on the Severn Trent water website and if you are a severn trent customer then you can order free water saving devices. They have a shower water reducer (it says on there they these can not be used with electric showers), a shower timer, tap aerators, cistern saving bag, and a leaflet about water saving. (umm not sure if there was anything else, think thats it.)

had a look round the rest of the products bit and they are also selling these products.

Bargain as it all also saves you money on the water bill.

http://www.stwater-savewatersavemoney.co.uk/products/free-water-saving-pack

above is the link (hope it works)

chazmo

water saving freebie.

once you have selected what 3 items you want. go to checkout at top and fill out your details.

http://www.biggreensmile.com/water/veolia/

OneYorkshireLass

A maximum of one cistern device and two tap insert packs can be ordered per household in addition to a single shower water saving device. If you are unsure which device to order please visit www.veoliawater.co.uk/savewater for more information on each product pressing the 'find out which device is right for you' button. If you would like to order additional devices these can be purchased from the discounted water efficiency devices page or by clicking the 'click to order discounted water products' button on the savewater homepage. If you would like to order multiple devices on behalf of a business please contact Veolia Water Efficiency Mailbox at [EMAIL="WaterEfficiency@Veoliawater.co.uk"]WaterEfficiency@Veoliawater.co.uk [/EMAIL].

CoffeeCup

Worth reading which devices to order - I don't need any!