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Hospitality providers face substantial challenges in engineering innovative ways to regulate water consumption while not impacting on the functionality of their systems or increasing health and safety risks.
Enware is one of the leaders in developing the technologies involved and is an ardent supporter of the WELS water conservation initiatives.
Enware demonstrated the savings possible in commercial and institutional kitchens throughout Australia when over the last year it supplied Woolworths with a total of 1668 FS729 Ultra Rinse food service guns to be used nationally to save water and energy. Based on industry standard average use per day, Enware calculates* these will save more than 25 million litres of water a year as well as nearly $1.75 million in energy costs.
Enware is particularly active in the hospitality and food service markets, which are among the bigger water users in Australia. While it champions initiatives such as the WELs water conservation measures, it sees major challenges presented by some suggested water use constraints that may be either impractical or not feasible.
Some sectors of the building industry, heavily influenced by Green Building targets, have expressed the need for hospitality facilities to further curtail their water usage and became even more water efficient
Such blanket targets may be at odds with good sanitation practices, which are one major cause of higher water consumption. Research published by health authorities, for example, shows that hand washing has been proven as the most important and basic sanitisation technique to prevent the spread of infection.
We must also look at the heated water source that supplies warm water to fixtures within hospitality facilities. TMV’s are the preferred source of delivering controlled temperature heated water where they both save energy and prevent burn accidents.
Greater levels of water efficiency can be significantly advanced by technology such as electronic or self closing tapware that controls the time a fixture runs without the need for manual intervention to shut off the supply. This type of technology has a significant impact on water usage, which it achieves in ways other than by simply reducing flow rates.
Initiatives by Enware include a new generation of touch-activated, self-closing tapware to optimise water savings and hygiene in public and private food and hospitality uses.
However, when all the factors are considered it becomes obvious that amending flow rates alone may not have the desired impact in seeing water efficiency gains and that a comprehensive overhaul and greater level of understanding of the interplay of the technologies and handwashing requirements is needed.
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