greywater recycling
Stemming the tide of water use
With developers bound by legislation to reduce the water consumption of new-build
developments, Graham Fisher, Business Development Director at CME Sanitary
Systems, explains how greywater recycling systems can meet water saving targets.
Greywater systems, once seen as that is now helping developers to which is enough for approximately sustainable homes that have a
being an innovative way of saving achieve water use requirements, 15 toilet flushes. lower carbon footprint, making
water in areas of low rainfall, are without impacting upon the nor- An important benefit with this them more affordable and attrac-
now playing a wider role in mal water consumption habits of particular micro greywater system tive to future buyers.”
achieving sustainability targets. potential buyers. has been to ensure that collected
The Code for Sustainable Homes When we were designing our water is automatically removed For more information on
sets guidelines on the issue, rec- Ecoplay micro greywater manage- from the system if it has not been greywater recycling systems,
ommending that water consumption ment system, we also felt it was used within 24 hours. Sufficient contact CME Sanitary Systems
levels are decreased to 105 litres important to ensure it was simple fresh water is then imported and on 0844 4122029 or visit the
per person per day, as set out in to use and low maintenance – to can operate two WCs per system website www.cmesansys.com
Levels 3 and 4. For Levels 5 and 6 show that energy saving technolo- within a household.
to be achieved, no more than 80 gies are user-friendly and do not
litres of water per person per day require specialist skills to operate
should be used. them. This makes the system a ‘fit MEETING THE
Developers are therefore look- and forget’ installation, which CODE IN STYLE
ing at ways of reducing water use means that homeowners may not Developers are looking
without compromising on luxury, even realise that it is there. for cost effective ways
as they know that potential buyers Developer David Wilson Homes of meeting the Code,
often judge the standard of ac- recently chose to install Ecoplay especially in the cur-
commodation by the facilities in a number of properties at its rent market. A
“Developers are looking at ways of reducing
water use without compromising on luxury,
as they know that potential buyers often judge
the standard of accommodation by the facilities
offered in the bathroom.”
offered in the bathroom. Greenfield’s development in greywater system
There are two options available Overton, near Basingstoke. can meet these de-
– namely, to introduce low flow Here, greywater recycling was manding criteria. The
showers and shallower baths to all one of the criteria of the planning advantage of greywa-
bathrooms, or to install a greywa- application. However, chemical sys- ter systems, like
ter recycling system that actually tems were seen as not being viable Ecoplay, is that the
re-uses bath and shower water to for the long-term due to their high more water that is
flush WCs. Many homeowners en- maintenance costs. As a simple used, the more is recy-
joy the luxury of power showers micro greywater recycling system, cled. This means that
and deep baths and are therefore Ecoplay was recognised for being the housebuilder can
reluctant to give them up. By fit- low maintenance as well as having increase the specifica-
ting a greywater system, there is maximum environmental benefits. tion of bathroom
no need to give up these products, As developers recognise the fittings to make the
as it can provide the perfect bal- benefits of water conservation, home more desirable
ance between luxury and long-term sustainability and finan- to potential buyers,
sustainability in the bathroom. cial savings for homeowners, this whilst still achieving
is leading to micro greywater man- the code. In effect, fit-
agement systems becoming rapidly ting an Ecoplay system
TURNING THE TIDE accepted in housing projects. means there is no
A quick study of where household need to carry out
water actually goes shows that the complex water use
largest proportion, approximately HOW IT WORKS calculations, as it is
33 per cent, is used for taking a The system uses a skimmer to re- guaranteed to meet
bath or shower, whilst an addi- move light surface materials from the requirements.
tional 30 per cent is used for toilet water that is collected from the By installing a
flushing. This was the starting bath or shower, whilst heavier par- greywater system,
point when we began developing ticles sink and are flushed away developers can make
our Ecoplay micro greywater man- with the waste. their properties more
agement system, which is based Water is then drawn from the appealing to buyers,
on the simple premise of recycling middle of the tank and transferred as well as doing their
bath and shower water and using to a storage tank where it can be part in conserving
it to flush the toilet. This is a used to flush the toilet. Each sys- scarce resources. This
straightforward idea and one tem can store 100 litres of water, helps to create more
British Builder & Developer 23
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