Water Softeners
Tapworks' managing director, Mike Pickavance, discusses the importance of water softeners, including some health benefits
Despite everything we know about limescale, it's amazing how many people choose to live with it and its effects, when there is a simple way to banish it from the home: the humble water softener.
For many people who have had water softeners for decades, they wouldn't live without one. The new modern water softeners are a massive improvement over the older models and the energy and cost savings that accompany an investment in one make the investment worthwhile.
Limescale forms inside pipes, radiators, cylinders, pumps and boilers. Just a 1.6mm build-up of scale can cause a 12% loss in heating efficiency from the heating system - that's a massive waste and it has a massive cost implication, too. Scale will also form around the heating coil and eventually fill a hot-water cylinder. It's estimated that the amount of hard water used annually by an average family of four contains 70kg of limescale.
HEALTH BENEFITS
There is significant anecdotal evidence that softened water has a positive effect in reducing the symptoms of atopic eczema. This may derive from the reduction in hardness of salts in bath water or less washing powder residue in clothing, but this is not yet clear.
The industry is awaiting the results of independent research that has been undertaken by Nottingham University to scientifically assess the effects of softened water on eczema.
Eczema affects up to 20% of school children in the UK, but most treatments only suppress the condition and can have unwanted side effects. This research study looked at whether water softeners help reduce the severity of eczema, and recruited 310 children, aged six months to 16 years, with moderate to severe eczema. All water in their homes was softened, except at one tap in the kitchen that supplied mains (un-softened) water for drinking.
The clinical trial was led by Professor Hywel Williams and Dr Kim Thomas of the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology at the University of Nottingham, and was funded by the government's NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme.
The results of the trial will be published in The Lancet and then rolled out to all interested parties. Tapworks was happy to be involved in the trials and awaits the results with interest.
RUNNING COSTS
Tapworks shows an average 32% savings on running costs resulting from the installation of its water softener when it replaces an existing softener. It's this kind of saving that is seeing sales of water softeners holding up well in difficult economic times.
However, it's only a matter of time before companies will be looking to carbon-audit partner companies and suppliers on the basis of carbon generated by that company's activities and products, with decisions on whether to buy or specify its products based to a large degree on the company's carbon footprint.
Tapworks was accredited as an officially carbon-neutral business in 2009. An accredited EU Emissions Trading Scheme Verifier measured and evaluated every aspect of the Tapworks UK operation, confirming that it is likely that the annual emissions created in the US manufacture of the UK-sold units are covered by the annual emissions saving created by the softener use. "It is therefore safe to state categorically that the UK operation of Tap works has a beneficial impact on the environment. "
This report highlights that installing a Tapworks water softener in a hard-water area of the UK - which covers about 60% - will not only mean installing a carbon-neutral appliance, but a consumer could also be "conservatively saving up to 20% a year on energy bills because of the reduced demand on electrical energy supply from a power station or gas combusted in the water-heating equipment".
Despite everything we know about limescale, it's amazing how many people choose to live with it and its effects, when there is a simple way to banish it from the home: the humble water softener.
For many people who have had water softeners for decades, they wouldn't live without one. The new modern water softeners are a massive improvement over the older models and the energy and cost savings that accompany an investment in one make the investment worthwhile.
Limescale forms inside pipes, radiators, cylinders, pumps and boilers. Just a 1.6mm build-up of scale can cause a 12% loss in heating efficiency from the heating system - that's a massive waste and it has a massive cost implication, too. Scale will also form around the heating coil and eventually fill a hot-water cylinder. It's estimated that the amount of hard water used annually by an average family of four contains 70kg of limescale.
HEALTH BENEFITS
There is significant anecdotal evidence that softened water has a positive effect in reducing the symptoms of atopic eczema. This may derive from the reduction in hardness of salts in bath water or less washing powder residue in clothing, but this is not yet clear.
The industry is awaiting the results of independent research that has been undertaken by Nottingham University to scientifically assess the effects of softened water on eczema.
Eczema affects up to 20% of school children in the UK, but most treatments only suppress the condition and can have unwanted side effects. This research study looked at whether water softeners help reduce the severity of eczema, and recruited 310 children, aged six months to 16 years, with moderate to severe eczema. All water in their homes was softened, except at one tap in the kitchen that supplied mains (un-softened) water for drinking.
The clinical trial was led by Professor Hywel Williams and Dr Kim Thomas of the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology at the University of Nottingham, and was funded by the government's NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme.
The results of the trial will be published in The Lancet and then rolled out to all interested parties. Tapworks was happy to be involved in the trials and awaits the results with interest.
RUNNING COSTS
Tapworks shows an average 32% savings on running costs resulting from the installation of its water softener when it replaces an existing softener. It's this kind of saving that is seeing sales of water softeners holding up well in difficult economic times.
However, it's only a matter of time before companies will be looking to carbon-audit partner companies and suppliers on the basis of carbon generated by that company's activities and products, with decisions on whether to buy or specify its products based to a large degree on the company's carbon footprint.
Tapworks was accredited as an officially carbon-neutral business in 2009. An accredited EU Emissions Trading Scheme Verifier measured and evaluated every aspect of the Tapworks UK operation, confirming that it is likely that the annual emissions created in the US manufacture of the UK-sold units are covered by the annual emissions saving created by the softener use. "It is therefore safe to state categorically that the UK operation of Tap works has a beneficial impact on the environment. "
This report highlights that installing a Tapworks water softener in a hard-water area of the UK - which covers about 60% - will not only mean installing a carbon-neutral appliance, but a consumer could also be "conservatively saving up to 20% a year on energy bills because of the reduced demand on electrical energy supply from a power station or gas combusted in the water-heating equipment".
