Wellington City Council signal water shortages coming

Forums › Off topic › Wellington City Council signal water shortages coming - time to reconsider dishwashers?

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#2951465 6-Aug-2022 22:42

MikeB4: @Geektastic Te Whanganui a Tara has a few reservoirs both close to the city and further out eg Te Maria twin lakes. There is also a very large underground reservoir AKA the harbour Aquifer. The issue is not storage is the containment once the water leaves the storage.

Pipes, you mean?

allan

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#2951467 6-Aug-2022 23:48

OldGeek:

The water supply in Wellington is hobbled by distribution (not supply) issues and by the fact that for residential properties there is no metering in place. Water supply is taken from an aquifer below the Hutt Valley and pumped to reservoirs around the region. Water levels in those reservoirs rise overnight and lower during the day. When demand exceeds supply over time there is a problem.

Typically the aquifer only provides around 40% of Wellington's water, although it can be much higher than that in summer. The Hutt River at Kaitoke also provides around 40%, with the lakes at Te Marua as a contingency, and the Wainuiomata/Orongorongo area around 15%.

Source: https://www.wellingtonwater.co.nz/your-water/drinking-water/where-does-it-come-from/wellington-region-water-supply/

Wellingtondave

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#2951470 7-Aug-2022 01:58

Geektastic:

I just do not understand why they do not build proper reservoirs in NZ.

It rains all the time in winter in Wellington and the surrounds. They save absolutely none of that and then tell people that they have to go without all summer.

In 1976, Britain had a massive drought. The following year, Parliament passed the Rutland Water Act that created a reservoir with a 26 mile circumference (42km if you prefer) and required an entire village to be resettled because the existing one would be under water. The reservoir supplies water to several water companies. It is also a huge recreational facility with sailing clubs, water skiing, bird watching, a cycle path around it and it is stocked with trout for which many people pay to catch.

Yet here, we let thousands of cubic litres an hour wash into the sea every week of winter then claim we have no water in summer.

Frankly it is pathetic - there is no excuse.

It would cost 20 billion dollars just to relocate the native snails.

Tinkerisk

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#2951471 7-Aug-2022 05:11

Wellingtondave:

It would cost 20 billion dollars just to relocate the native snails.

Then fill it up slowly so they can crawl away. ;-)

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#2951561 7-Aug-2022 09:20

Getting back to the dishwasher topic:

lchiu7:

<snip>

This local guy says a standard wash uses about 43c electricity which is hardly exccessive.

<snip>

Something else to take into account to is this:

That 43c mostly goes to heat the water that is used by the dishwasher.

If you wash by hand, you are not just using more water, you are using more electricity because you have more water to heat up.

gzt

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#2951601 7-Aug-2022 11:41

7 litres is a very efficient dishwasher. Dishwashers usually have several modes sometimes including eco as a source of the best figure. Not many people use eco regularly as it tends to be light. 40 litres for sink washing the same load is some kind of overestimation for many cases. Tldr; obtain specs for the dishwasher and mode you actually use.

gzt

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#2951606 7-Aug-2022 12:00

In terms of water use washing dishes is tiny and hardly worth optimizing. Showers can be worth looking at. I have one of these heads with a 6 lpm restrictor installed with some trepidation. It's excellent, although I only use it on one spray setting and we have a shower dome

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/stream-shower-head-h-90mm-w-186mm-d-375mm-chrome/p/173627

Back to the topic what percentage of daily water use in Wellington is wasted by leaks?

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lchiu7

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#2951613 7-Aug-2022 12:32

gzt: In terms of water use washing dishes is tiny and hardly worth optimizing. Showers can be worth looking at. I have one of these heads with a 6 lpm restrictor installed with some trepidation. It's excellent, although I only use it on one spray setting and we have a shower dome

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/stream-shower-head-h-90mm-w-186mm-d-375mm-chrome/p/173627

Back to the topic what percentage of daily water use in Wellington is wasted by leaks?

I also use low flow shower heads like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Waterpik-Original-Massage-Shower-Head/dp/B07WTJW5SB/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=waterpik+shower+head&qid=1659832218&sprefix=waterpik+shower%2Caps%2C280&sr=8-10

On the matter of dishwashers, if people used less water to wash dishes, then it all helps. Maybe we can extend the shower to 3 minutes :-)

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

mattwnz

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#2951717 7-Aug-2022 16:16

jpoc:

Getting back to the dishwasher topic:

lchiu7:

<snip>

This local guy says a standard wash uses about 43c electricity which is hardly exccessive.

<snip>

Something else to take into account to is this:

That 43c mostly goes to heat the water that is used by the dishwasher.

If you wash by hand, you are not just using more water, you are using more electricity because you have more water to heat up.

If one has a dishwasher, you still have to wash up a lot of things and clean up etc by using the sink. Plastics and rubber, and anything with print often fades and discolours in dishwashers, and not everything is dishwasher friendly.

If people have a heatpump water heater or gas, then it maybe more expensive to have the dishwasher heating up the water. Older dishwashers like my old asko used to connect to the hot water supply.

mattwnz

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#2951719 7-Aug-2022 16:20

lchiu7:

gzt: In terms of water use washing dishes is tiny and hardly worth optimizing. Showers can be worth looking at. I have one of these heads with a 6 lpm restrictor installed with some trepidation. It's excellent, although I only use it on one spray setting and we have a shower dome

https://www.mitre10.co.nz/shop/stream-shower-head-h-90mm-w-186mm-d-375mm-chrome/p/173627

Back to the topic what percentage of daily water use in Wellington is wasted by leaks?

I also use low flow shower heads like this.

https://www.amazon.com/Waterpik-Original-Massage-Shower-Head/dp/B07WTJW5SB/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=waterpik+shower+head&qid=1659832218&sprefix=waterpik+shower%2Caps%2C280&sr=8-10

On the matter of dishwashers, if people used less water to wash dishes, then it all helps. Maybe we can extend the shower to 3 minutes :-)

Unfortionalety I don't think they do low pressure ceiling drencher heads. They are great in the shower. We used to have a low pressure head in our old house and the spray it produced was almost painful on the skin. Very unpleasant and it was one provide by an eco home company.

Eva888

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#2951735 7-Aug-2022 17:22

When it rains, I take the car out of the garage, throw a bucket of soapy water over it and leave it in the rain. Am always aware of wasting water.

Am irked at the thought of water meters as we already pay through our exorbitant rates. If they cut our rates then maybe it would be palatable since our rates have gone up a huge amount and still climbing. Plenty money for cycleways but none to fix our infrastructure and lay new pipes.

lchiu7

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#2951736 7-Aug-2022 17:24

mattwnz:

Unfortionalety I don't think they do low pressure ceiling drencher heads. They are great in the shower. We used to have a low pressure head in our old house and the spray it produced was almost painful on the skin. Very unpleasant and it was one provide by an eco home company.

You mean something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/SparkPod-Shower-Head-Installation-Replacement/dp/B074PR4FRT?th=1

1.8 US gallons/minute which is about 6 litres/minute which I think qualifies as low flow.

mattwnz

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#2951798 7-Aug-2022 18:21

Similar, but they attach to a mount on the ceiling and are often larger 300-400mm wide. Not sure if there is anything available in NZ. But shorter showers do also save water.

Geektastic

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#2951799 7-Aug-2022 18:29

Tinkerisk:
Wellingtondave:

It would cost 20 billion dollars just to relocate the native snails.

Then fill it up slowly so they can crawl away. ;-)

Invite the French to hold an outdoor cooking demonstration…

Tinkerisk

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#2951800 7-Aug-2022 18:33

Eva888: When it rains, I take the car out of the garage, throw a bucket of soapy water over it and leave it in the rain. Am always aware of wasting water.

This has been forbidden here for decades for environmental reasons and can be expensive as a penalty. Privately, either only with water or off to the car wash.

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