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RECYCLING RAINWATER TO WASH 200 BUSES A DAY WINS NATIONAL AWARD ___________________________________________________
Installed as part of a refurbishment of the depot earlier this year, the system collects rain falling onto an area of the depot’s roof, cleans it using ultra-violet disinfection and then stores it in a 26,000 litre tank. At the moment, more than 200 buses are washed everyday using water collected in this way. The concrete surfaces covering the site presented a particular design challenge as the storage tank which holds the collected rainwater is usually stored underground – obviously not possible here. So a special storage tank was designed to sit above ground, with a combination of heavy duty insulation sandwiched between the inner and outer walls of the tank and trace heating protecting it from freezing winter weather. “The Cardiff Bus depot demonstrates the flexibility of rainwater harvesting systems” comments Derek Hunt, MD of Rainharvesting Systems. “Washing over 200 buses a day needs a lot of water, and this is met by the rainwater harvesting system. Yet rainwater can be used also in small developments where it flushes a few toilets, and increasingly we’re supplying systems to commercial clients who use rainwater for industrial processes. In the UK, our use of water is going up by 1% each year, but the amount of water available for us to use is fixed – water can’t be made or destroyed. There are places within the country where demand is predicted to outstrip supply within the next few years. So we need to be putting into practise innovative methods of saving water, and reducing pressure on the environment.” So far, buses have been washed with rainwater for just a few months, but in the first 5 weeks of operation 150m3 (150,000 litres) of rain was used instead of mains water – the equivalent of the amount of water held in approx 15,000 garden buckets! A monitoring unit built into the system will enable the bus company to know exactly how much mains water has been saved at the end of a year. And it’s not just water – using rain also saves money as water companies charge for all mains water used so less mains water used means smaller bills. Win-win all round. ___________________________________________________ |
A rainwater harvesting system supplying cleaned rainwater to wash 200 buses a day at Cardiff bus depot has just received a national award. The Sustainable Water Industry Group’s (SWIG) Awards 2011 for inspiring ways to use water wisely has made the bus depot scheme a winner in the Non-residential Retrofit category. The scheme was designed by Rainharvesting Systems Ltd, in partnership with Natural Power UK, and the award brings the total number of award-winning schemes that Rainharvesting Systems has been involved with this year to 3 – very satisfying for the UK’s longest supplier of rainwater harvesting systems.