Help ensure your home buyers use less water by installing Neoperl flow regulators.
Water is a precious resource under growing pressure as we build more homes for more people and experience the increasing effects of climate change. It’s also a fact that in the UK each person uses on average 141 litres of water every day, the highest usage across all European countries. It’s therefore predicted that unless we reduce our current water usage our daily lives, communities, nature and the wider economy will start to suffer.
Being involved in the building of new homes you will likely be aware of the drive, through Building regulations Part G, to develop more water efficient homes. Planning authorities expect limits of 125 litres of water per person per day on new developments and they can also ask for a lower limit of 110 litres as a planning condition.
So, any products that help you as the developer reduce water usage have got to be considered early in the planning process.
It’s estimated that 34% of all water used in the home is through showering and bathing and here is where the fitting of a flow regulator or Pressure Compensating Aerator can help. Today, these small devices can be retrofitted and inserted at the end of a tap spout or upstream of the shower outlet, to reduce and regulate the water flow. A standard European shower will produce around 18 litres of water a minute, yet an equally comfortable shower is possible from a shower head delivering around 12 litres of water. If homeowners are saving the amount of water used, they’re also saving the energy that heats it.
Many assume that valve showers and taps already have a flow control device within them and yes some do. However, it’s only really once the tap or shower is in situ that the flow can really be assessed. We’ve all experienced taps that splash water out of a basin or a shower that splashes out of an enclosure where a small reduction in the flow would improve both the performance and the comfort whilst also reducing the water usage. It’s a simple audit that’s required and it could help save thousands of litres of water a year per home.
Neoperl’s clever solution is a flow regulator device, technically engineered with an integral dynamic control ring at its core. As water flows through it and as the pressure fluctuates the DCR deforms into the core of the flow regulator, either reducing or increasing the size of the orifice, to enable a stable and constant flow, independent of pressure. Retrofitting a flow regulator or PCA can be an easy job for a builder, you simply need to obtain the right product to retain adequate performance and use a simple tool to fit it. It is a quick and simple fix to help save water and the environment.
