Project Overview

Although the installation of water efficient fixtures and fittings is becoming more common in new-build homes, this only makes up a small percentage of the 2.4 million households in Scotland. The remaining households are older properties that were built over several decades and sometimes centuries ago, that had little or no water efficient fixtures and fitting installed.

Of these households, around a quarter of these are social housing properties owned by Housing Associations and Local Authorities.

Scottish Water wants to explore the effectiveness of a number of water efficient measures in order to develop a standard ‘water efficiency specification’ that could be used for refurbishing existing households. These measures would have a minimal impact on anyone living in the household, but they will help the household to use water wisely which in turn helps to reduce energy bills and do their bit to protect the natural environment.

This project is part of Scottish Water’s wider resource planning into efficient and environmentally sustainable water provision over the next 25 years.

As this project examines water usage in specific real household situations, the only way the project can measure this without disturbing residents is to install a water monitor. This water monitor is a clever and convenient gadget which we can use for this project to measure how much water is used and when it is used only.

Please note, this monitor does not work in the same way as an electricity meter or gas meter, which are calibrated and used for billing purposes.

This project is only looking at water use patterns within households and how water efficient fixtures and fittings can help tenants to use water wisely. This is not being used to trial water meters in Scotland, as other projects are doing in other parts of the UK.

Home Log Book is managing this project over the next few years.  We’ve created a Home Log Book for each home on this project enabling us to capture all property and utilities information into each unique Home Log Book. This cost efficient and user friendly format ensures transparency and clarity of project, property and utilities information.