Offices are looking to reduce energy use. Here is the simplest thing they can do that will decrease total energy use from day one.

If your office has not upgraded your bathroom taps to new low flow technologies, you are literally pouring energy, money and water down the drain. With today’s climate and energy situation – that’s just not acceptable anymore.

Most companies do not understand how much energy that goes into heating water. Or how much water that is running through bathroom taps every single day. Therefore they are missing their simplest climate impact solution.

Today there are new technologies that make it possible to reduce water and energy use by 90%, without impacting functionality or experience. And it is possible to retrofit in current taps very simply and at a low cost.

It is in fact one of the easiest and quickest ways for a regular office building to save on the buildings Total Energy Use by simply upgrading all bathroom taps. And the upgrade will have paid for itself in 1-2 months.

Savings – Office 100 employees
Energy: 7,151 kWh
CO2: 4.3 tons 
Water: 286 m3 
Money: 2,074 EUR 
ROI: 1.2 Months

Savings/Year when switching from regular nozzle with 8 lit/min to Altered Spray nozzle with 1.2 lit/min.
Simple solution – huge potential.
Even if it makes business sense for every single office to upgrade taps, the bigger picture is even more interesting. With 1,500 million Square Meters of office space in EU alone¹, there is a huge potential for yearly savings that would have an impact on GHG emissions from day 1.

Potential EU, Office bathroom taps
Water: 340 million m3 
Energy: 8.5 billion kWh
CO2: 2.3 million tons

So don’t be a drainer! It is time we start opening our eyes for all the water, energy money and CO2 we are flushing straight down the drain.

References:

1. 1500 m2 office space in Europe. Average energy use: 171 kWh/m2. Means an office of 1350 m2 uses 230 850 kWh/year. Savings of 7 151 kWh=3% of total Energy consumption. https://www.eia.gov/consumption/commercial/data/2012/c&e/cfm/pba4.php
2. In average 10-12 employees per bathroom and 12-15 m2 per employee. Meaning in average 150 m2 for 12 employees or per toilet/washbasin. https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/advice/how-much-office-space-do-i-need-57459/
3. 50 lit per employee per day, of which 27% is hand wash. This means 13,5 liter per employee/day for handwash or 3415 liters/year. With 10 persons per toilet this gives 34150 liters of water per sink. https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/media/1509/waterusebusiness.pdf
4. Altered Stockholm AB, case studies with clients show at least 50% of water in taps for hand wash is hot water.
5. It takes 5 kWh to heat 100 liters of water from 17 to 60 degrees celsius. https://bloglocation.com/art/water-heating-calculator-for-time-energy-power 34155/2/100*5=854 kWh
6. "The water industry contributes 0.8 per cent of annual UK greenhouse gas emissions. However, the emissions that result from heating water in the home increases this figure to 5.5 per cent. ” 0,8/5,5=0,14 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/291728/scho0708bofv-e-e.pdf
7. Average g co2eq/kwh within EU-27=275 grams/kwh, https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/greenhouse-gas-emission-intensity-of-1
8. Cost of water 2€/m3. Cost of energy 0,21€/kWh.