Water shortages in the UK and what it means to our new way
of window cleaning.
The Government here in the UK has forced the window cleaner
over to a completely new way of window cleaning. Health
and safety states they cannot clean windows unless their
feet are planted firmly on the ground. The window cleaner
and resourceful suppliers have found ways round the
restrictions by using water fed poles for window cleaning.
Firstly the tap water is purified, stripped of all the
dissolved solids. To do this we need to clean the water,
it is passed through a Reverse Osmosis system which
separates the good water from the contaminated water. The
problem with this is to get 400L of pure water we are
actually needing 1200L of tap water, times that by the
amount of window cleaners in the UK and we are using
72,000,000 extra Litres of water per day. With water being
the prime essential of life as we know it you can see that
the over usage of water can create a major problem.
Aquatec water fed pole systems takes this problem seriously
and have developed numerous ways of reducing the water
usage among it's customers. Vasts amount of this water
probably about half the amount used to clean the windows is
wasted due to excessive overuse of the water, which include
the following four major points...
1/ The way the water comes out the brush.
Until Aquatec got involved with the water fed pole industry
all brushes used pencil jets which waste vast amounts of
water. These jets don't restrict water in any way and
cause water to flow from the brush in two places only,
meaning more time is spent with the brush on the glass
ensuring the water is reaching every part of the glass, for
effective cleaning. And also as the water is not coming
out under pressure a lot of the water is wasted without
even being used. The water was also being used to excess
to justify large water treatment systems being sold to
customer who purchased these systems.
2/ Brushes.
The type of brushes being used before Aquatec got involved
were more suited to the car washing industry. These
brushes were very dense and didn't allow the dirt to freely
pass through the brush, meaning more time and water on the
glass.
3/ The means for stopping and starting water.
When a window cleaners working he is relying on a valve
type device, or a water stop type device for stopping and
sorting the water flow. And because the two stated devices
rely on the operator stopping what he is doing, to turn a
valve by hand, or disconnect a pipe by hand, to stop the
water flow then he is just going to continue what he is
doing, without turning the flow off. What Aquatec done was
fitted the valve on the brush itself and supplying a means
of operating the valve from the ground with a simple tap of
the brush on one side or the other to start or stop the
water ensures the operator will prefer to stop the water
flow when needed. At the time of writing this no other
supplier has attempted to supply their customers with the
Autobrush valve system.
4/ The pole.
The new clamp-less Pole, again a first from Aquatec. Apart
from a massive time saving over conventional water fed
poles, this pole actually conserves water as well. Instead
of pumping water for 8 hours per day the operator will be
working only half the time, pumping water for only 4 hours
per day.
All the above water saving devices may not seem like much
but added together amount to a considerable water saving
over the course of the day.
----------------------------------------------------
Peter Fogwill based in Scotland, and owner of Aquatec water
fed pole systems.
For more water saving advise please contact me on
Email peter@window-tools.com
http://www.window-tools.com
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