IMPROVING
Save Water
And Increase Your ROI
How You Can Design Your Home
To Use Water More Efficiently
BY PATRICK ROSSLEE
T
here are many ways to implement water
conservation measures. By simply updating
the plumbing infrastructure you can reduce
the monthly water consumption, save costs and
increase the Return On Investment (ROI) of your
buy-to-let property.
It is more cost-effective to integrate a rainwater
harvesting system during the build process rather
than at the post construction stage.
Key water conservation measures
•
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Taps:
Aerators must replace all taps that run around
15L of water per minute to reduce the flow rate
to as little as 6L per minute.
Residential Handbook 2015
•
•
Showers:
Inexpensive timers alert users of the time spent
in a shower.
Low flow showerheads can use 6L to 10L of
water per minute.
•
Toilets:
Toilets are the main source of water use in the
home making them attractive targets for water
efficiency improvements.
• High-efficiency options include dual flush
technology. These toilets have two flush volumes:
a full flush for solids and a reduced flush for
liquids only.
• Plastic bottles filled with water (and carefully
placed inside the cistern) and the so-called toilet
dam (a barrier placed inside the cistern, creating
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