You have no items in your shopping cart.
Questions about a product?
Broadcaster is assessing ‘health issues’ of tap water after a freedom of information request revealed cost to licence fee payers.
The BBC spends nearly half a million pounds a year on bottled water for water coolers. Photograph: Getty Creative
The BBC has been accused of wasting public money and creating unnecessary environmental damage by spending nearly half a million pounds a year on bottled water. Responding to a freedom of information request from the Guardian, the public broadcaster said it spent £406,000 annually on large bottles for its water coolers.
Reduce your home and office usage of water with our range of water saving devices.
(more…)
The water companies have expressed disappointment at regulator Ofwat’s response to their proposed capital investment plans covering 2010-2015.
Ofwat has just published its draft determination outlining major cuts in some water companies’ spending plans, and calling for cuts in customers’ bills.
The regulator has sanctioned £21B investment in the industry.
Its prosposals include cutting Thames Water’s planned £5.5B spend to £4.6B over the next five years.
Ofwat has also nearly halved the company’s proposed water mains replacement programme that, according to Thames Water, will result in no leakage reduction over the next five years.
(more…)
Tap water in the north is the worst in England according to the independent drinking water quality regulator’s report.
The report, which was presented at a seminar hosted by the Consumer Council for Water’s Northern committee, last week compared the country’s water quality levels.
Overall, the report revealed the UK’s water quality is of a very high standard with the best area being Thames region, where water is considered to be 99.98% clean.
This is closely followed by the central and eastern regions who both scored 99.97%.
The lowest figures were reported in the northern at 99.93% and in the southern region (99.95%).
The Western region makes up the middle of the group recording the industry average figure of 99.96%.
Chief Inspector of Drinking Water, professor Jeni Colbourne, said: “There is now compelling evidence from consumers to show the benefits of investment in cleaning and renovating the water network with one fifth fewer complaints of dirty water.”
Other areas for water industry improvement flagged in the report are a more timely diagnosis and remedial action to problems at water treatment works to prevent recurrent problem and improved risk assessment ahead of planned works on water mains to prevent incidents.
Filtering your own water is quick and easy with our water purification devices.
Source: Edie.net
We might never consider the size of the raindrops as we hurry for cover, but their variety has puzzled scientists for many years.
Now, by filming one falling raindrop, researchers in France have explained why the drops are an array of so many different sizes.
Reporting in the journal Nature Physics, the team described how the drop deformed and burst as it fell.
Its fragments matched the size and distribution of drops in natural rain.
Scientists previously believed that the drops collided with each other as they descended, and that these interactions produced a variety of drop sizes.
But the lead author of this study, Emmanuel Villermaux from Aix-Marseille University, explained that there were always “shortcomings” in this idea.
“The drops are not likely to collide that often,” he told BBC News. Real raindrops are so sparse, he said, that it is likely a drop would “fall on its own and never see its neighbours”.
“So we said OK – let’s look at what’s happening on the scale of a single drop.”
With a high-speed camera, Dr Villermaux and his colleagues filmed a single falling drop of water – about six millimetres in diameter.
They recorded how air resistance caused it to deform and eventually break up.
The large, round drop fell, gradually flattened out and, as it got wider, eventually “captured” the air in front of it to form the shape of an upturned bag.
This bag finally “inflated” and burst apart into many smaller droplets – all within six hundredths of a second.
This happened because drops were too large and heavy to remain intact.
Each large, heavy drop accelerates as it falls and “has to displace the air molecules” on its way down, explained Dr Villermaux. “This produces the air resistance or drag.”
At a certain speed, the number of air molecules – and therefore the intensity of this drag – is greater than the surface tension holding the round drop together, so the drop starts to deform.
“When it bursts, the fragments match exactly what we find in raindrops,” said Dr Villermaux. “This is a precise, quantitative explanation for their distribution and size.”
Dr Ewan O’Connor, a scientist from the University of Reading, who studies clouds – taking measurements to improve weather modelling and forecasting – described this as a a very nice way of showing exactly what happens.
“But this is unlikely be what happens all of the time in the UK (for example), as we don’t get raindrops of this size that often,” he told BBC News.
“When raindrops get to a certain size… you will get this break-up. And this is likely to happen often in the tropics.”
But, Dr O’Connor added, “this doesn’t explain drizzle, where the droplets are much smaller, but there are many more of them.”
Source: BBC world news
In the UK, 27% of carbon dioxide emissions come from the energy we use to heat (and light) our homes.
It is not only carbon that’s going out of the window – and for that matter the roof, walls and floor – it is our hard earned money.
But imagine if we could transform our homes from leaky, draughty places that guzzle energy, into more comfortable, brighter, places – warmer in winter and cooler in summer – with smaller bills.
Imagine if we could do that without it costing consumers a penny, or landing a hefty bill at the government’s door.
(more…)
Things you can do include:
• use a watering can instead of a hose
• if you do use a hose, use a trigger to control the flow
• avoid using watering can roses, except on young seedlings, as much of the water doesn’t reach the roots where it’s needed
• watering early in the morning or late at night means water doesn’t evaporate in the heat of the day before it can reach the roots
• leave plants and shrubs dry until they show signs of wilting – watering too often can keep roots shallow and weaken plants
• weed regularly to make sure that watering helps plants and not weeds
• prioritise young plants and seedlings; more established plants will survive longer periods without water
Check out our range of water saving garden products which can help reduce your water consumption.
Hippo the Water Saver is the simple, proven and low cost water saving device to help conserve water in toilet cisterns. Every time a toilet is flushed the Hippo saves approximately 3 litres of water! Toilet flushing accounts for about a third of household water usage. You probably flush away as much water in a day as you drink in a whole month.
What is a Hippo?
Hippo is made from durable heavy gauge Polyethylene, which opens up into an open ended box shape when installed. The Hippo sits in the water underneath the large cistern float. When the toilet is flushed, the water confined within the Hippo is the volume saved. The Hippo also has a small hole which acts as a relief valve allowing slow circulation of water to prevent stagnation and evaporation. Click here to view more water saving products…
