Articles & Case Studies

Flow regulating valve promises one ‘L’ of a saving

While the Government, various regulatory bodies, and many of the water companies in England and Wales try and persuade us all to use less water, either on a voluntary basis, or via the use of Drought Orders, it is becoming increasingly obvious that there are some very simple water saving ideas that have not, as yet, been implemented on a nation-wide scale, for no logical reason – unless bureaucracy and incompetence are allowed this classification!

By all means ban hosepipes, ask the public to put bricks or special devices in their cisterns, try and persuade us all to have showers instead of baths, and recommend that we collect rainwater to water the plants, but it would be nice to think that, at the same time, some basic changes in the law might be implemented that could save millions of litres of water per annum ‘automatically’, without the need for human beings to change their lifetime habits.

Granted, the retrospective fitting of water saving devices in millions of properties is not such an easy task to achieve, whether customers can choose, or are required, to install equipment such as water meters, low flush toilets and the like, but it is, surely, inexcusable, to allow new properties to be built without ensuring that they are as water efficient as possible.

There has been much attention focused on the construction of energy efficient homes – covering such things as efficient boilers, sufficient insulation, and secondary glazing, as well as the development of energy efficient white goods, light bulbs etc. However, inexplicably, there has not been the same diligence applied to the potential for huge water savings.

Simon Cottam, MD of Cottam & Preedy, explains: “As a company, we were responsible for developing and marketing the ball valve/isolation valve in the 1960s, which was primarily adopted because it gave the benefits of ease of maintenance, time saving and also saved water, as there was no need to drain the whole system down. This concept was adopted so universally that, today, there are some 15 million plus valves installed each year under what they call ‘industry good practice’, even though they are not included into a specific building regulation.”

Cottam continues: “If these 15 million plus isolation valves currently being fitted all contained flow regulation a massive amount of water would be saved. Legislation is already in place to regulate other energy resources, carbon emissions etc;, so why then is water not included within Building Regulations (Part L)? Including water saving measures would benefit everyone and would take away the emphasis of who has to pay.”

Cottam adds: “The overall result would be benefits to the environment, the Government, the water companies and the homeowners (a rare win, win, win situation!) without having to simply rely on people turning their taps off whilst brushing their teeth.”

Cottam believes that his company’s CP961 Multi valve has the potential to cut water consumption by as much as 70 per cent, by regulating the amount of water that comes out of the tap. Cottam explains: “The flow regulator does not so much restrict the amount of water being used as ensure that there is a regular flow of water that is not dependent on system pressure.” So, it’s not about restricting water usage, it’s more a question of reducing the volume of water wastage.

Simon Cottam is so convinced of the potential water savings offered by the CP961 Multi valve that he is currently lobbying the Government to make amendments to Part L of the building regulations – which focus on heat and power, but not water wastage.

And it’s not just theoretical exercises on paper that back up his case, but plenty of real life examples. For example, in 2005, Water Management Solutions UK proposed a comprehensive water saving programme across all of Debenham’s UK sites. This entailed looking at water usage throughout the organisation, incorporating a comprehensive survey of all the sites.

Having completed the survey, Cottam and Preedy’s CP961 water saving valve was proposed as the simple solution to achieve the majority of the identified savings. The results from Debenhams showed actual savings in excess of the target 20 per cent and, based on the success of the pilot scheme, Debenhams is currently looking to role out this model across all their UK stores.

Cottam says, “We are delighted to be working with such high profile organisations and providing such substantial savings. In our market, it is difficult to get people excited about a valve as simple as the CP961, but when it directly saves them so much money it is a great advert for the product.”

In another example, Cottam explains that, measuring the flow from a basin tap in a local office, recently showed a delivery of 20 litres per minute. Those involved in building design would generally agree that four to six litres per minute is enough for a comfortable handwash with no detriment to the user. Fitting a CP961 valve could ensure that the flow was a constant six litres per minute, saving water every time that the tap was turned on.

Start to multiply these savings by the number of taps in an office building, or an apartment building, or even just a household, and it’s easy to see why Cottam is so frustrated that, so far, flow regulation valves have been ignored by the regulators. The more so, when one considers that it’s not just water that could be saved, but the building trade might care to take notice of the potential savings on materials, as Cottam & Preedy’s own sales brochure example explains.

A development of 10 apartments might have a supply that delivers up to 40 litres of water per minute to each apartment. Should all 10 apartments require simultaneous supply, the total peak demand could be up to 400 litres per minute.

If the same building is designed with CP961 Multi valves, complete with 10 litre per minute flow regulator cartridges at each domestic water outlet, the total peak demand will never exceed 100 litres per minute – saving water and energy, and also offering the potential to downsize the associated infrastructure, such as pipes, tanks and pumps.

Simon Cottam concludes on a familiar theme: “What is being done to prevent the enormous amount of water that is wasted every day? The Government seems reluctant to introduce any measures that will make a difference – apart from periodic hosepipe bans.”