A home in Sydney’s Clovelly which received a Gold Medal in the 2004 Green Building awards shows the water saving solutions which can be adopted in an individual renovation or new home building project to conserve valuable mains water.
The Clovelly house was designed to meet best practice in architecture, urban design and environmental design. A principal outcome in water saving is a 75 percent reduction in town water use, achieved through selecting readily available concepts and products implemented by the architects Kennedy Associates and environmental engineers, ENVDS.
The house has three compact rainwater tanks in the backyard which can store nine thousand litres of rainwater collected from the roof. The tanks are filled by regular rainwater which then provides the cold water for the bath, showers and hand basins and pool.
They are equipped with a Davey Rainbank controller from Davey Products which automatically switches the water source from the domestic mains to the rainwater stored in the tanks whenever a demand is created.
The Rainbank automatically determines to use the rainwater first and then mains water only as a back up, or as the supply should there be no stored water available in the tanks.
Another water conservation initiative is that the grey water generated by the house is biologically treated in a tiered vertical planter established alongside one of the boundary fences. The treated grey water is then used for the washing machine and the toilet flushing needs of the house.
Architect Simon Anderson from Kennedy Associates Architects, who designed the project, says that the owners wanted to effect a number of innovations beyond the normal applications of passive solar use and environmental design. I consider the house shows that there are readily available solutions and products to conserve water, reduce energy consumption and maximise energy efficiency at the domestic home level.”
Source: Building Products News.