Flushing wisely to save money and the planet

Sunday, 6 December 2009

We are all trying to do out bit to save the environment, we are carbon offsetting, fitting expensive solar panels to our roofs and trying to use our cars less. We are also being encouraged to save water.

Water saving is a major environmental issue. In the UK we do not treat water as a precious resource and so squander hundreds of thousands of litres needlessly every day whether it be from dripping taps, running water while we clean our teeth or leaving garden sprinklers on for days on end.

So what should consumers do to reduce water consumption in the home? Well fixing dripping taps is a start but the real guzzler of water in the home is the humble WC accounting for over 30% of the water used in every single home each and every day.

Now all toilets may look the same but depending on their age they flush on vastly different amounts of water. British toilets are so well made that they are rarely replaced, meaning that many toilets within the UK still flush on up to 13 litres of water. Only 5 million domestic toilets flush with the regulatory 6 litres; the UK government estimates that the average WC flushes on 9 litres of water.

Now for the maths…There are roughly 45 million WCs in the UK and if each is flushed on average 4 times a day we literally flush away 1620 000 000 litres of water.

Thankfully for the eco-conscious consumer help is readily at hand. British bathroom manufacturer Twyford Bathrooms has now made it easy to save water in the home with its Flushwise WC, the UK’s lowest flushing WC. The dual flush WC uses a staggeringly low 4 or 2.6 litres of water, giving an effective flush volume of just 3 litres – half the maximum water level set by current UK legislation.

By simply replacing their old toilets consumers will save at least 6 litres of water per flush. In the average household, this will save 30,000 litres per year!

Yet switching to a water saving Galerie Flushwise does not just help the environment it could save you money too. If a consumer is on a metered water supply then switching to a Flushwise WC could save them £72 a year.

Flushwise Wc's have the same footprint as a conventional WC making replacement of old toilets quick, easy and hassle free. Flushwise WC's are available as part of three suites: Galerie, Galerie Plan and Grace providing the consumer with a choice of styles.

Twyford Bathrooms has also ensured that the Flushwise Wc's are reasonably priced and are easy to install, in order to encourage consumers to switch from water wasting WCs to the Flushwise. Flushwise WC's have a starting price of just £314.20 and consumers will be able to purchase the WC from showrooms and builders merchants across the country.

If all WCs in the UK were Galerie Flushwise, we would save over 1 trillion litres of water– that is enough water to supply the entire population of Leeds with enough water for a whole week! So make the switch to Galerie Flushwise and do your bit for the environment and save money.