ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Many water efficient household appliances are not considered cost-effective to install from the perspective of the householder or from a water company undertaking a large scale retrofit programme. The current state of the market is reviewed for the following appliances: toilets, washing machines, dishwashers and showers. For each product group an economic analysis has been undertaken that considered water, wastewater, energy costs, the residual life of appliances replaced, life span and implementation period. The results suggest that all the options considered are worthy of further investigation
1 INTRODUCTION
Despite moderately high rainfall in England and Wales (897 mm/year) water availability per capita is low (1334 m3/annum) and is lower than Spain, Syria and Malawi, due to our high population density (343 /km2). In its national water resources strategy, Water resources for the future (2001), the Environment Agency depicted a number of catchments, predominantly in the southeast of England, where either there was no additional water available for abstraction or over-abstraction was currently occurring. Against this background most water companies continue to predict growth in demand driven by increasing levels of household per capita use.
