A water softener: the best energy saving device
A water softener: the best energy saving device
If you live in London and the south east, East Anglia and the Home Counties you will probably be experiencing some of the hardest water in the UK. Sixty percent of the UK suffers with hard water. Use our Hard Water Postcode Check to find out if you can benefit from the use of a water softener.
Limescale in storage tank
Hard water is water that contains dissolved chalk, lime and other minerals. The affects of hard water is easy to see, scale in the kettle, scaling up of showerheads, limescale marks in the sink and loo. However, it’s what you do not see that is the most troubling. Heating systems, washing machines and dishwashers are prime targets for hard water damage. Every year 1.5mm of scale can build up within the home. Scale will form around the heating coil and even fill a hot water cylinder. It’s estimated that the annual amount of hard water used by an average family contains 70kg of scale! Untreated limscale simply means wasting energy, wasting money and having to replace appliances and heating systems.
Major independent research study in the USA has concluded that water softeners are amongst the ‘very best’ household energy savers. The research was undertaken over 9 months at a cost of $700,000 and commissioned by the Water Quality Research Foundation – a not-for-profit association that provides public information about water treatment issues. The research findings back the energy saving claims made by EcoWater over many years and this information can be found in the Batelle report findings.
The study found that instantaneous gas water heaters – similar to combi boilers here in the UK – operated on softened water maintained the original factory efficiency rating over a 15 year lifetime. Softened water, the report says, saves 34% of costs compared to operating on 340ppm hard water. As a consequence of the study, the WQA, is now promoting water softeners in the USA as ‘the best energy saving device you can buy’.
This reports highlights that by installing an EcoWater domestic water softener, if you live in a hard water area of the country, you will be ‘conservatively saving up to 20% a year on your energy bills.
If you would like to find out more why not contact us.
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