"marceldesailly":3jjz4i32 wrote: I think the best way of saving water (using an IC)would be to have a pump then (in theory) all you would ever need is the same water which you could save in a water butt and recycle,or use grey water or harvested rainfall.Ideally thats what I'd do but I think it's a while before I start investing in pumps![/quote:3jjz4i32]
Or you could use gravity fed grey water. No need for a pump and it'd be totally eco friendly.
"marceldesailly":781347hq wrote: I think the best way of saving water (using an IC)would be to have a pump then (in theory) all you would ever need is the same water which you could save in a water butt and recycle,or use grey water or harvested rainfall.Ideally thats what I'd do but I think it's a while before I start investing in pumps![/quote:781347hq]
Or you could use gravity fed grey water. No need for a pump and it'd be totally eco friendly.[/quote:781347hq]
I suppose you could, I had been thinking there wouldnt be enough pressure without a pump to get the water through but ye maybe gravity would be enough.
"Atticus":2x5qmnxw wrote: The houses is an interesting one. I wonder what type of meters they'll be, were they propose to install them and how they plan to read the meters.
It's not like Gas meters that are always external and generally out front in a dedicated meter box where it's easy for Bord Gais to take readings.
Mains water supply is nearly always at the back of a house where the kitchen is and it comes up through the floor (generally under the sink) so thereby indoors and not to easy to take a reading from outside. <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->
Kildare County Council use meters that have transmitters that can be read remotely so maybe that's the plan. But again, if you had extreme water usage I'd imagine it wouldn't be difficult to bypass the meter, especially if it's fitted internally.[/quote:2x5qmnxw]
Thats my general point - mains water usually comes into the house under the floorboards and into the kitchen; if they want to put a meter there then they're
a) going to have to wait till everyone is home to do so - that's usually evenings or weekends, cos I'm f*cked if I'm waiting at home for some muppet to come along and install it and
b) going to have to tidy up the mess they make cutting open the back of everyones kitchen cabinets etc to get access to the water main.
If they're going to go with the remotely read ones then presumably they need some sort of power source for that too - what happens when the battery or whatever dies - free water until they discover 2 consecutive readings the same <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->
By the way Ken, my gas meter is in the house and they expect to be able to call around without warning, during the working day and read it. They don't often actually get to do that because in the real world, few people have a 1950s housewife in an apron, baking an apple tart, or just pottering around the house with a feather duster, to let the nice man from the gas board in to read the meter, whenever he happens to pop by.
Poc. Dublin City Council left a hydrant around the corner from my house gushing water for months before they sent someone around to fix it. These meters are going to be installed and monitored by the same people who left that hydrant gushing.
I know some consumers are wasteful of water and maybe we should value it more, but if you are going to try to reduce waste, it would make sense to target the greatest source of waste and that is not the consumer.
This article "Over half of local authorities' water supplies disappear"[/url:2ixr24em] from November should give you an idea of what we are in for.
"water leaks, unauthorised usage and metering errors are major problems for county and city councils".
Metering errors eh? Something for us to look forward to.
If this was about saving water, the money would be better spent on fixing those leaks. This is a tax. The meters are only there as as smoke screen.
If the cost is €600 million to install the meters (borne by the local authorities) but yet every household is to get an allocation of "free" water, this scheme might never pay for itself. Can't see it happening myself...
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