FEATURE
WATER TREATMENT AND
WASTE MANAGEMENT
“Water loss through leakage
amounts to three billion litres
per day, equivalent to the water
used by 20 million people”
Go soft on hard water
and reap the benefits
Steve Ansell, product champion for BWT UK, looks at how softened water can help your
customers on their way to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly lifestyle.
Water, sustainability and the
environment remain hot
topics of conversation and
ones which resonate across
our industry.
In a report last month, the
Environment Agency (EA) warned that
England is facing water supply shortages
by 2050 unless rapid action is taken to
curb water use and wastage.
Water loss through leakage amounts
to three billion litres per day, equivalent
to the water used by 20 million people,
according to Emma Howard Boyd, EA
chair, in her foreword to the report.
Emma urged for more to be done, citing
that the average person in England uses
140 litres per day, a significant amount of
which is wasted.
She said that the EA will continue
to work with the government and the
water industry to agree a personal
consumption target and cost-effective
measures to meet it.
Saving water around the home can
make a big difference not only to the
quantity of water people use, but by saving
the energy they would have previously
used to heat it.
ELIMINATING LIMESCALE
For people living in a hard water area
switching to softened water can eliminate
limescale from the hot water circuit,
therefore, maintaining the efficiency of
their boiler and helping to reduce energy
and cost.
There are a number of other
environmental benefits linked to using
luxury water softeners which should be
emphasised when discussing options with
customers interested in the environment
and sustainability.
In February 2018, the Department
for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
updated its summary of targets in its 25-
year environmental plan.
Under the section designed to
minimise waste, three very important
areas were highlighted where a correctly
sized and installed water softener could
help your customers make a positive
contribution too.
They are:
1. Working to a target of eliminating
avoidable plastic waste by end of 2042
2. Meeting all existing waste targets –
including those on landfill, reuse and
recycling – and developing ambitious
new future targets and milestones
3. Significantly reducing and, where
possible, preventing all kinds of marine
plastic pollution – in particular material
that came originally from land.
By the spring of this year, proposals for
reducing plastic usage went main stream.
The government’s suggested initiative
on bottle deposits highlights the need to
control the use of plastic. Recycling is part
of the solution, but equally important is
reducing the amount of plastic we use in
the first place.
Homeowners faced with an array of
cleaning products and toiletries may
rightly wonder how they can make a
difference, when so many of them are
packaged in plastic.
This is where benefits of luxury water
softeners come into their own. Soaps,
detergents, shampoo and conditioners
all behave differently when used with
softened water.
Without the minerals that make water
hard, these common household products
lather and wash away more easily, meaning
up to 50% less product is used every time.
This it turn results in fewer trips to the
supermarket and fewer bottles to recycle.
Softened water doesn’t leave limescale
or soap scum around the home, so the
need for specialist cleaners is drastically
reduced and some can even be eliminated
altogether, further cutting your customers’
reliance on products typically packaged in
plastic.
REDUCING FOSSIL FUEL
CONSUMPTION
The result of burning natural resources
such as oil and gas is also a sustainability
concern.
The government and the industry has
talked a lot about the benefits of fitting
modern and efficient central heating
boilers, but these benefits can easily be
eroded by the build-up of scale.
Luxury water softeners will help keep
the hot water or secondary circuit free
from scale, helping to ensure the efficiency
of the boiler is maintained, saving on
heating bills and reducing the amount of
fossil fuels we need to burn.
Recycling steel, aluminium and other
metals relies on large amounts of energy.
Softened water can make a difference
here too.
Domestic and commercial appliances
can fail prematurely due to the effects of
limescale. High repair costs and relatively
cheap product replacements fuel a
throw away culture which sees ‘broken’
appliances thrown away or recycled.
Removing those minerals that cause
limescale with a luxury water softener can
stop this type of failure, resulting in fewer
replacement products and a reduction in
energy required for recycling.
So, next time you sit down with a
customer who is interested in sustainability
and the environment, it might just be the
perfect opening to introduce the many
benefits luxury water softeners offer.
ENQUIRY NUMBER 110
Luxury water softeners help reduce limescale build-up
and allow appliances to run more efficiently
44 Heating & Plumbing Monthly | JUNE 2018 | www.hpmmag.com
/www.hpmmag.com
