Water Efficient House of the Future (2014)

The UKWRIP Water Use Action Group aims to promote efficient domestic water use through increasing public awareness and understanding, influencing behaviour, water valuation and market transformation.

To achieve this objective, Waterwise held a series of preparatory internal and external discussions to dene the issue and develop the conceptual approach and context. This included discussions with the water industry, bathroom manufacturers and the construction sector.

Based on these discussions, Waterwise developed the hypothesis that the key to increasing the water efficiency of homes lies in non-technical solutions. We concluded that there is sufficient technology already available to dramatically reduce the water use of UK homes. However, there are social, fiscal and legislative barriers to the uptake of water-efficient technology. In some areas we even found regressions with developers moving away from installing water-efficient technologies.

The workshop focussed on exploring some of these nancial, technological/logistical, and social barriers to the widespread uptake of water-efficient technology in homes. It took place on 7th October 2014 and brought together people from a broad spectrum of professions, all of whom provided unique insights into how people respond to water-efficient technologies in homes (Appendix 1). The overall aim was to draw out and articulate the issues and challenges preventing people from adopting water-efficiency technologies in their homes, and to begin exploring potential solutions. Presentations at the event, from Tony Rheinberg of Ideal Standard, Phil Barnard of Chandlers Building Supplies and Dani Jordan of Waterwise, set out the financial, technological and aspirational ‘challenges’ respectively for the attendees to tackle, which helped to guide and stimulate discussions.