Archive for the ‘Water Saving’ Category
Six-star kitchen taps —Best practice water efficiency right down to your kitchen sink
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 17.
Some kitchen taps on the market boast a 4-star water efficiency rating, but 4-stars is 2-stars shy of the most efficient taps available: 6-star.
Kitchen taps can discharge as much as 15 litres of water per minute so if you’re in the market for new tapware, the first thing you should look for is the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards Scheme (WELS) rating of the tap. WELS is Australia’s water efficiency labelling scheme and each tap has a star rating; the more stars the better. The WELS database at www.waterrating.gov.au allows you to search for registered products and see their water flow and 10-yearly water consumption.
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
The right tank for you
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 18.
With so many different water tanks and water management systems available today, how do you choose the one that will meet your needs?
Words Sarah Robertson
With the price of water expected to increase by more than 50 per cent in the next four years and climate change creating uncertain rainfall patterns, rainwater tanks are a simple solution with measureable benefits for most Australian homes. So what tank and system is best for you?
Adam Maxey, Water Projects Manager at the Alternative Technology Association, explains that the first thing to consider with tanks is what you will use the water for. “This will determine what type and size of tank you will need,” he says. “Is it just for garden use or do you want to use it internally? Is your motivation to conserve water or just keep the garden alive during dry periods or water restrictions?
“Figures suggest that around 80 per cent of all home water use is internal, therefore if conserving water is the main priority you will need to consider how you can use the water inside your house.”
Once this decision is made, other things to consider are where to position the tank, whether the proposed site has access to the necessary plumbing, and what filtration system, pump and tank you will use. And if you are in an urban area and plan to use mains water as well, do you want to be able to switch between the two water sources automatically?
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
At first light
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 18.
A New Zealand house has achieved international recognition but its purpose is largely local: to encourage sustainable living in the “Land of the Long White Cloud”.
Words Verity Campbell
Photography Ron Blunt
Late Last year 27 University students from Victoria University of Wellington set out for Washington D.C. Their journey had been two and a half years in the making.
The team had been selected as one of 20 finalists – the first ever from the Southern Hemisphere – to take part in the US Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. Held biennially since 2002, the Solar Decathlon is an event designed to inspire and inform participants and the wider public about the benefits of building green. Staged over ten days in the National Mall’s West Potomac Park near the White House, the free event attracts over 300,000 public attendees.
To reach the finals, the team, supervised and supported by university staff, had to design and build a home that would achieve best practice energy efficiency – essentially a net zero energy house that would make as much or more energy over a year than it needs to run itself. The house also had to be built to a realistic budget and be deemed attractive to market.
To have even attempted such a task, let alone make the finals, would have been commendable. But the hurdles didn’t end there. If they were chosen for the finals, the team would need to find funding for the manufacture and transportation of the house through product and marketing partnerships –no easy feat.
If you’d like to read the rest of this article you can buy this issue here.
Free home health checks
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 8.
The Australian Government’s Green Loans program, launched on July 1 2009, aims to help homeowners improve their existing home. As part of the program, more than 1000 people will undertake Home Sustainability Assessor training to become accredited Green Loans assessors.
A tailored home sustainability assessment, coupled with access to a four-year interest-free loan of up to $10,000, will enable homeowners to make immediate energy and water-saving changes, from draft-sealing to installing solar panels and greywater systems.
Getting a free home sustainability assessment is the first step to qualifying for a Green Loan of up to $10,000. To find out if you are eligible for a Green Loan or to register for a home sustainability assessment, go to www.environment.gov.au/greenloans.
Apart from reducing your carbon footprint, making your home more environmentally friendly is a timely investment. The next 10 years will see the housing market shift towards environmentally friendly homes in response to pricing shifts for water and energy, smarter environmental building regulations and consumer demand.
Greywater
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 2.
While using greywater can help water your garden during periods of low rainfall, if used inappropriately, particularly on small residential blocks, grey-water has the potential to contaminate soil, cause water logging, flooding, landslip and disease.
If you are thinking of installing a greywater system in your home there are a number of things you need to consider. All greywater systems require some behavioural changes and a maintenance regime, therefore careful consideration is needed before installing a system. Make sure you discuss the project with your family, people who have greywater systems and a friendly green plumber.
To manage the potential health and environmental risks, state and territory governments have introduced different measures to control the installation and use of greywater systems. Contact the environmental and health officer at your local council and find out whether you need a permit and how applications are assessed. Secondly, contact your relevant state or territory environment department, find out what guidelines apply in your area and how the approval process for accreditation is conducted. Also check with your local water authority, as you may need their approval if there are changes to the plumbing going into the sewerage system.
System types
There are three broad categories of greywater systems: diversion only, diversion and filtration, and diversion with treatment. Diversion-only systems are simple and generally require little maintenance, but are potentially the most hazardous. They involve intercepting or ‘diverting’ the water along a pipe pathway and directing it into the garden, generally by gravity.
Diversion and filtration systems will have a filter mechanism located outside the house. These filters strain out the hair and other little bits that go down the drain. These systems allow for better irrigation options than diversion-only systems, as they won’t clog your irrigation system as easily.
Diversion and treatment systems are more complex and vary from highly mechanised systems, such as aerated wastewater treatment systems to sand filters. The advantage of installing a treatment system is that the water will have a far lower nutrient and solids content, as well as having a reduced pathogen load. Treated greywater can be used safely in more direct irrigation systems, such as dripper lines, and possibly inside the house for toilet flushing and laundry washing.
Treatment systems can be expensive to install and often require a lot more room than filter systems, varying degrees of ongoing maintenance and may even have running costs such as the running of pumps.
Choose carefully and if you follow the tips below your greywater system can help you save water and keep your garden thriving over summer.
Resources
A truly sustainable tank
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 3.
What to do when you’re finished with your tank? When the tank has reached the end of its useful life it will need to be scrapped. The best option is for it to be recycled rather than end up as landfill, giving you all the more reason to be careful when choosing your rainwater tank. A galvanised or lined mild steel tank will generally be quite corroded and you may even have to pay someone to take it away. Poly tanks have the potential to be recycled, but this is something to discuss with the tank manufacturer; if they don’t have a strategy to deal with the tanks then they will most likely end up as landfill. Fibreglass tanks are generally not recyclable. Stainless steel tanks maintain some value, with all of the material able to be recycled, and scrap metal dealers may even pay for it, giving you plenty of reason to plan for the next 20 or 30 years when buying a rain water tank.
Catch it while you can
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 3.
More and more people are supplementing their mains supply with rainwater, or better still, becoming totally self-sufficient for water use.
To live solely off rainwater you need a pretty big tank, probably two, the rationale being that it always rains when you least need it. It’s handy to have rainfall stored from wetter times to get you through the drier months. The size of the rainwater tank depends on where you’re going to put it. If space is not an issue then you could place one 20,000 litre tank next to the house for all your water needs. However, some residences might be more suited to two 10,000 litre rainwater tanks, or a handful of different sized ones such as a 5000 litre tank accompanied by a couple of 2000 litre tanks.
If you’re looking to supplement your water use with rainwater then a smaller tank might do the job. For instance, a good size for a toilet flushing tank would be 2,500 litres. A tank used solely for toilet flushing or cold water laundry use would be smaller than one used for watering the garden, which might be 4000 to 5000 litres. A tank for watering the garden is used the most in during dry months, so most of the water needs to be stored from wetter times of the year.
How much will be collected?
The size of your roof will also influence what size tank you get. Each square metre of roof collects one litre of water for every millimetre of rainfall received. So if you have a 60 square metre roof and there was a 10 millimetre downpour, then you stand to collect 600 litres. Considering the average roof is 160 square metres, the potential to collect water from the roof is enormous.
Above or below ground?
Tanks are more commonly installed above ground, although more are being placed underground. Above ground tanks are becoming more aesthetically pleasing, coming in a range of colours and materials to suit any style of house. As well as the traditional round variety there’s the flat-sided oval or square slimline tanks, designed to fit narrow spaces.
Underground tanks are available as poly tanks or concrete, and are often installed when the house is being built. Concrete tanks are usually reinforced, so can go under the driveway because they can support heavy loads. Bladder tanks, consisting of a metal frame and flexible plastic, are good under houses mounted on stumps, or beneath decks.
Another thing to consider is the repairability of your water tank. Hopefully a tank will last for many years, (some come with a 20 or 25 year warranty), but occasionally it may need to be fixed. The material used for the tank will determine how easy it is to repair, with stainless steel tanks probably the simplest to fix. Underground concrete tanks probably won’t sustain any damage, but may be more difficult to repair.
First flush
A first flush device diverts the first flow of rainwater from the roof to the stormwater drain, preventing most of the roof debris from entering your water supply. Some tanks already come with a first flush system; if they don’t then they are highly recommended, even if you don’t plan to drink rainwater, as they limit the build up of sludge in the tank.
Sustainable landscapes
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 4.
It really doesn’t matter what style of garden you prefer, whether it be formal, Japanese, cottage, or contemporary, the principles are still the same.
Water sensitive urban design is one of the most significant changes in urban design in recent years. It is the practice of keeping water on site, at least for as long as possible, rather than send it immediately into the stormwater system. An important aspect of that is porous paving. Use porous paving wherever you can to reduce runoff from the site.
Another change is recycling. Concrete from the old gardens can be sent to a recycler and turned into crushed rock. Then used as a compactable sub-base under wall footings and paths.
A practice in the industry had been to import top soil as required, with little consideration to maintaining the existing top soil, which would be buried or compacted during construction. Since most of the imported top soil is from unsustainable sources, the practice is being replaced by stockpiling existing topsoil and importing composted greenwaste products as soil improvers as necessary.
Existing top soil can be scraped to one side and stored on site. When landscape works are completed, the top soil can be amended and laid back over, to provide a planting environment. This also reduces cart away to tips and landfill sites.
Rainwater gardens
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 4.
Rain that lands on the ground or driveways usually ends up going down the stormwater drain. Why not capture some of this water not only for the benefit of your garden, but to reduce the amount of rubbish and pollution that goes into the drainage system and eventually into the waterways.
According to Stuart McQuire, author of Water Not Down the Drain, the first thing you should do when looking at capturing stormwater is to watch your garden when it is raining.
“Get an idea of your garden to see where puddles are forming. Is there water simply running down hill or are there paved surfaces that are collecting water that could be redirected to the garden?” says Stuart.
“Once you have an idea of where the water is pooling or running off you can look at ways to capture this water for the benefit of your garden. Options include landscaping, creating a rainwater garden, capturing the water in underground tanks or installing porous paving.”
Clever landscaping
Landscaping can be designed to direct water to areas where it can seep into the soil rather than running off the site. Swales are a way of landscaping your garden so that it catches as much rain as possible. Swales are hollows or ridges constructed along the contour of the slope to hold water as it runs down the slope. The water then seeps into the ground for the benefit of the plants.
In the home garden, swales can be subtle variations in the slope that are part of the landscaping without their function being obvious; wider swales can even be lawn areas. Plants or landscape features can also be used to help retain and filter the water, or they can be used to extend and enhance your swales. Swales are particularly good for retaining water for trees or deep rooted shrubs.
Porous paving is another thing to consider when you are putting new paving in. Porous paving can have the same stability and function as non-porous paving, but it allows water to seep through into the ground. Trees or other plants near the paving will benefit from this water.
Raingardens
Raingardens capture the water, allowing it to seep into the soil slowly. They can include ponds or water features and can double as a home for frogs. Raingardens are designed to capture the flow of stormwater coming from paved areas, overflow pipes of rainwater tanks or direct from downpipes from the roof of the house. The raingarden typically has an overflow point to a stormwater drain for when there is really heavy rain for extended periods.
The garden should feature plants that can tolerate the soil going from very wet to periodically dry. Rocks or pebbles should be used as mulch, as these don’t float when the water flows and end up clogging drains, but like timber mulch, they protect the soil from evaporation and suppress weeds.
With a bigger budget you could even consider getting underground tanks that can be used to capture stormwater.
Save water
This is an excerpt from an article in Sanctuary magazine issue 6.
Use three or four star WELS-rated shower heads, toilets and water fixtures. Catch your rainwater in tanks for use in the bathroom and garden and look into getting a wastewater treatment system. Use drought-tolerant landscaping.
