Government Coalition Partners at Odds on Water Rate Introduction Date – How can we counter Water Rates and Save Money?
The coalition partners seem to be at odds with each other over the impending introduction of water rates in Ireland.
At a time when many of us have recently received our Property Tax letters from Revenue more gloom news was on the horizon last week when Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan seemed to confirm that the introduction of water charges is due to proceed from January 1st2014.
According to Hogan “the date for the introduction of water charges had been set by the troika and it wasn’t up to him to change it”
But is it really? This morning Labour party leader Eamon Gilmore now says “it won’t come in until all the water meters have been 
installed”.
Could water really be the straw that breaks the camel’s back when it comes to this coalition government?
2012 Green Awards Finalist Purchase.ie is an online store with a dedicated section on water saving products. According to Colm Griffin of Purchase.ie “whatever date it turns out to be it will be coming in and it looks like it won’t be a flat rate. Instead you will pay on a “what you use” basis”.
It is therefore probably a good time to consider solutions which will minimise how much Big Phil and our Troika friends can extract from our pockets by conserving water.
Below are some ways to save water and limit what you will pay for the privilege of using it.
Water Saving In the Bathroom
Aerated Showerheads are designed to restrict the amount of water that flows from your shower unit without compromising the water pressure. Basically a restricter is placed on the bottom of the showerhead and the heads have a hole in the neck. As the water passes through air is sucked into the neck and what comes out is effectively a mixture between air and water. Therefore even though less water is coming out the pressure and your showering experience remains the same.
Most showers produce about 12 litre of water per minute. With the Ecocamel this will reduce to about 7 litres per minute. There is models available to fit both Hose fittings and Fixed Wall fittings. Models come suitable for both normal and electric showers.
Instant Bathroom Hot Water Tap
When you are relying on hot water to flow from your bathroom taps from an immersion feed it can take quite a long time before the water flow is hot.These electric hot water taps ensure that within 5 seconds of turning on the tap you got hot water running. It will also of course ensure you will save on your energy bill as you are only charged for what you use as opposed heating a full immersion and sometimes only using a small amount of it.
There is a wide range of showertimers available. They won’t switch the water off on you when the shampoo is still in your hair but they will make you more conscious of the time you are spending showering. Choose between a range of Digital Showertimers, One-Touch Showertimers or even a Water powered Showertime Indicator with an integrated colour changing LED Light. This fits on to the Faceut of the shower and changes colour every four minutes.
Works on a similar basic to the Ecocamel Showerhead. Basically the amount of water flowing from the bathroom tap is restricted to just 4 litres of water but the water pressure is not compromised.
A modern toilet cistern usually has a 6 litre tank fill and many have a dual flush bottom option. However older cisterns have a 9 to 12 litre flush which wastes a huge amount of water. To counter this many people fill a plastic bottle with water so when the toilet flushes water still remains in the cistern and the ball cock doesn’t travel all the way to the bottom of the cistern Therefore less water comes back into the cistern. The toilet tummy is a custom made product which you fill with water and fits neatly onto the inside of the cistern.
Water Saving in the Kitchen
Similar to the Bathroom Hot Water Tap the Kitchen Electric Hot Water Tap has a 180 degree swivel feature and can help you losing hundreds of litres of water whilst waiting for hot water to flow.
Designed to be placed on your kitchen sink tap and restrict the water flow to just 6 litres per minute. Swivel effect allows you to direct the water exactly where you want it to go leading to faster and more convenient rinsing. On average it is estimated that a typical household will save about 30,000 litres of water per annum by inserting one of these on your kitchen sink.
This silicon wedge is used to scrape off ingrained food on plates, pots etc before placing them in the dishwasher. A great alternative to wasting water pre-rinsing in the sink.
Water Saving in the Garden
We get plenty of rain in Ireland so why not turn this often perceived negative into a positive and install water butt on the downpipes of our homes and collect the rainwater? Instead of using the garden hose to water your plants our wash the car use the water from your Water Butt Kit.
This device allows you to recycle shower and bath water to your garden hose pipe from a sealed mains drainage. Easy to install and no need to alter existing pipework.
Sometimes we are guilty of not watering our plants but equally we are often guilty of overwatering them. The moisture meter is insert to the root level of the plants and gives you a reading on whether or not it is necessary to feed the plant with water.
An unrestricted garden hose can flow at a rate of up to 35 litres per minute. This water saving hose nozzle will restrict the water flow to a maximum of just 10 litres per minute without compromising the water pressure.
See more information at http://purchase.ie/advice/
