Building Regulations for Water Conservation

Two areas where mandatory building standards are commonly used to control the performance of buildings are carbon emissions and water efficiency. In this chapter an explanation is given as to why there is a necessity to conserve water in buildings and, more particularly, why the house building sector is a prime target when the government looks for areas that can use water more efficiently. The chapter also details why legislation is felt to be the best way to achieve sustainable construction, as opposed to education, and the potential effects of such legislations. The chapter also discusses related issues namely, Approved Document G and water recycling. It presents a case study that demonstrates how water calculator works and the difficulty in achieving the required level of water consumption. The simplest changes in household water use could have an enormous influence on future water demand.