Hose pipe ban

[wackojacko]

Dave Hedgehog said:

wackojacko said:

Works a treat....


Doesn't even need to be the official one just a gardening one will do.... or just use a bucket and sponge aslong as you fill it up from the a tap that doesn't have a hose attached to it

thats bloody superb

can you get battery powered ones? my car space is no where near the hose or the mains ....

Ours is self contained (same as the one in the picture), you pump it up to pressurise the cylinder and then spray away with what ever attachment necessary

[Dave Hedgehog]

thinfourth2 said:

Dave Hedgehog said:

thats bloody superb

can you get battery powered ones? my car space is no where near the hose or the mains ....

Its hand powered

im too lazy to do it by hand

i want !!

http://www.nomad-direct.co.uk/video/nomad-direct-f...

[corvus]

martin84 said:

I can fill up 150 buckets and use them to wash the car, using more than a hose would use with no penalty.

The dry winters may not be their fault but refusal to invest in desalination for decades is their fault. For decades we've been told global warming is coming and the East of England has a dry climate anyway, yet we still rely heavily on rain for water in the 21st century? Madness.

Would you actually bother to fill up 150 buckets though? Thought not. The law is there to stop people pissing water away needlessly.

Desalination plants use large amounts of energy and you need to dispose of the brine left as a by-product. I can see water getting a lot more expensive if we finally decide to go down this route, but maybe that's what will happen considering the increasing number of apes over-running this tiny part of the UK coupled with the lack of rainwater.

[Dave Hedgehog]

corvus said:

martin84 said:

I can fill up 150 buckets and use them to wash the car, using more than a hose would use with no penalty.

The dry winters may not be their fault but refusal to invest in desalination for decades is their fault. For decades we've been told global warming is coming and the East of England has a dry climate anyway, yet we still rely heavily on rain for water in the 21st century? Madness.

Would you actually bother to fill up 150 buckets though? Thought not. The law is there to stop people pissing water away needlessly.

Desalination plants use large amounts of energy and you need to dispose of the brine left as a by-product. I can see water getting a lot more expensive if we finally decide to go down this route, but maybe that's what will happen considering the increasing number of apes over-running this tiny part of the UK coupled with the lack of rainwater.

the problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or global warming, the UK water main system loses 1 billion litres of water a day from leaks, if there was no leaks the reservoirs would be overflowing

[Sir Bagalot]

Willy Nilly said:

martin84 said:

This ban is pathetic considering water companies lose 3 billion litres a day due to finding fines more affordable than fixing the leak problems. There's nothing to stop me filling up 150 buckets and pouring it all over the place though, as theres no hose involved.

how much water are they pumping per day and what percentage of that are they loosing to leaks/bursts?

When the weather is dry, cars don't get dirty, so why wash them? It's only vanity. So your windows are dirty. 10 minutes with a bottle of windowlene and some paper towels will sort that out.

It's not the water companies fault we have had 2 very dry winters in succession. Nor is it their fault most of the people and therefore demand is where the least rain falls.

On a scale of importance, drinking water will be a fairly high priority, food production a bit further down. Toward the bottom will be watering fking golf courses, further down still will be watering the garden and somewhere toward the very bottom will be washing the car.

At work, we have been asked how what percentage of water we can cut back on for irrigation. This could seriously reduce the yield and quality (and obviously profit) if it doesn't rain. And you're worried about washing the poxy car?

Are you for real?

Water Co's are unfortunately now about profit, not product delivery. Not enough investment back into the infratsructure.

Many years ago Three Valleys Water were instructed that they had to reduce the water lost through leaks by 10%. So what did they do? Invest some more of their profits into renewal of the infrastructure?

No. They merely turned the pressure down by 10% and reached the target immediately. I pay £400 a year in Water rates, I honestly don't expect it too much to expect to wash my car with a hose pipe.

[Willy Nilly]

Sir Bagalot said:

No. They merely turned the pressure down by 10% and reached the target immediately. I pay £400 a year in Water rates, I honestly don't expect it too much to expect to wash my car with a hose pipe.

You pay the same for your water whether there are floods or a drought. Maybe there should be increases in the price if the availability goes down and the demand goes up, just like oil?

Personally, I put drinking water above car washing water.

[Jimbo.]

martin84 said:

This ban is pathetic considering water companies lose 3 billion litres a day due to finding fines more affordable than fixing the leak problems. There's nothing to stop me filling up 150 buckets and pouring it all over the place though, as theres no hose involved.

That 3Bn litres ends up back in the groundwater, so isn't "lost" as such.

[rhinochopig]

Willy Nilly said:

Sir Bagalot said:

No. They merely turned the pressure down by 10% and reached the target immediately. I pay £400 a year in Water rates, I honestly don't expect it too much to expect to wash my car with a hose pipe.

You pay the same for your water whether there are floods or a drought. Maybe there should be increases in the price if the availability goes down and the demand goes up, just like oil?

Personally, I put drinking water above car washing water.

Well us northern monkeys have Keilder on our doorstep so we'll be thinking of you southerners as we liberally spray the stuff everywhere with our pressure washers. I may even start washing more than once a week just to use some more of the stuff

[Jimbo.]

Dave Hedgehog said:

the problem has nothing to do with lack of rain or global warming, the UK water main system loses 1 billion litres of water a day from leaks, if there was no leaks the reservoirs would be overflowing

As above: water lost through leaks in the water co.'s infrastructure finds its way back into the groundwater reserves, so isn't lost.
If there were no leaks, chances are we'd be in the exact same position as we are now. It has EVERYTHING to do with lack of rainfall, and almost nothing to do with leaks. Two dry winters in succession have caused this. How dry? Well, in the south-east, February saw IRO 40% of the amount typical for that time of year, and the scenario didn't get much better for the winter months before....

[Changedmyname]

Did the van with the hose to day, hadn't washed it for weeks, but there isn't a ban here.

[AndrewW-G]

Even though we haven’t got a pipe ban up north (yet) preparations were made a year or two ago, with the purchase of a couple of large rainwater butts . . . . Which will happily provide water for cleaning cars / watering plants

Am I the only person to think that the lack of water may not be just down to dry winters / leaky pipes, but something more fundamental . . . we've had a few million more people thrust upon the meagre infrastructure of the UK, with precious little in the way of investment to compensate and now we are starting to see shortages of water, I’ll get my tinfoil hat out

[anonymous-user]

Does the ban cover those giant 1000 litre+ paddling pools?. In the last drought I flew over SE England, every other garden seemed to have one!

[mattmoxon]

Jimboka said:

Does the ban cover those giant 1000 litre+ paddling pools?. In the last drought I flew over SE England, every other garden seemed to have one!

I would have thought so, unless they are used to house fish.

Tried today without the hosepipe (even though there is no ban here - yet) got the pressure washer out filled a standard 1 gallon watering can with water and put a hose from the pressure washer into the watering can. A single can full was enough to rinse the dust and loose stuff off the car (with a bit left over). Another can full used to rinse the car off. So including the soapy wash water and the second clean water bucket for rinsing the washmit in - around five gallons in total.

Worked a treat, took a bit longer than normal to build up the pressure but it worked, so I am sorted

[ViperDave]

Jimbo. said:

That 3Bn litres ends up back in the groundwater, so isn't "lost" as such.

well i wish my car was a catalyst for splitting water into Hydrogen and oxygen, i could make a fortune and solve the world energy crisis in one afternoon, sod the peugeot mood changing paint colour. But nah sadly it just soaks into the ground, some of it may make it to the drain to be nicely delivered to those same water companies.

[RichB]

Willy Nilly said:

...And you're worried about washing the poxy car?

well, if your car is poxy I can understand your contempt for it but i) I have cars which I value so I like to look after them and ii) you're on the wrong forum, Pistonheads is a car related web site.

[martin84]

Willy Nilly said:

You pay the same for your water whether there are floods or a drought. Maybe there should be increases in the price if the availability goes down and the demand goes up, just like oil?

Yeah cos that's worked wonders for the world

The fact is water supply in the 21st century should not be dependent on rain. We've had over 40 years to prepare for this, yet we still rely on rain. I don't see how we can cope in the 21st century if we can be held to ransom by weather. Desalination is the only way forward, if we started putting energy into it 40 years ago it'd be cost effective by now. Everything is expensive when its rare but the more you do it, the more efficient it gets and the cheaper it gets. Simples. Water should be above normal rules of 'supply and demand' and should be a constant.

WillyNilly said:

Personally, I put drinking water above car washing water.

So you think it should be alright to put the end of a hosepipe in your mouth and drink it that way?

With Water companies losing 3 billion litres a day I cant help but think there'd never be a drought if water companies didn't exist.

[corvus]

AndrewW-G said:

Am I the only person to think that the lack of water may not be just down to dry winters / leaky pipes, but something more fundamental . . . we've had a few million more people thrust upon the meagre infrastructure of the UK, with precious little in the way of investment to compensate and now we are starting to see shortages of water, I’ll get my tinfoil hat out

I'd agree - apparently we also use 50% more water per person than we did 25 years ago. The infrastructure was designed with heavy annual rainfall expected, so things like using treated tap water for sewage didn't matter - if it continues as it is the storage facilities and general infrastructure will have to be greatly improved, in the south east at least.

[Mermaid]

mattmoxon said:

Tried today without the hosepipe (even though there is no ban here - yet) got the pressure washer out filled a standard 1 gallon watering can with water and put a hose from the pressure washer into the watering can. A single can full was enough to rinse the dust and loose stuff off the car (with a bit left over). Another can full used to rinse the car off. So including the soapy wash water and the second clean water bucket for rinsing the washmit in - around five gallons in total.

Worked a treat, took a bit longer than normal to build up the pressure but it worked, so I am sorted

Interesting. If the pressure washer is connected directly to the mains (without a hosepipe) does that qualify for a fine - doubt it somehow. Here is the list

What does a hosepipe ban mean?

Hosepipe bans, officially called Temporary Use Bans, ban 11 things in the home:

watering a garden using a hosepipe
cleaning a car or other vehicle using a hosepipe
watering plants using a hosepipe
cleaning a private leisure boat using a hosepipe
filling or maintaining a swimming or paddling pool
drawing water with a hosepipe for "recreational use"
filling or maintaining a domestic pond using a hosepipe (apart from ponds in which fish or other aquatic animals are kept)
filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain
cleaning walls or windows with a hosepipe
cleaning paths or patios with a hosepipe
cleaning other artificial outdoor surfaces, such as decking, using a hosepipe.

Edited by Mermaid on Sunday 1st April 20:14

[martin84]

Mermaid said:

Interesting. If the pressure washer is connected directly to the mains (without a hosepipe) does that qualify as legal - doubt it somehow.

Its water companies enforcing bans, not the Government so lets stop using the word 'legal' when discussing this. You'd think PH'ers especially would know water is a private enterprise these days.

Secondly, if I get one of those portable power washers and fill it up with buckets from my mains, I can use that and not breach the rules as no hosepipe is involved

[mattmoxon]

Mermaid said:

Interesting. If the pressure washer is connected directly to the mains (without a hosepipe) does that qualify as legal - doubt it somehow.

No because it is still using a mains hose to feed it. However, using a watering can or bucket as a supply vessle it remains legal and it seems that you do use less water with a pressure washer too.