Case Study
Holiday Let Private Water Supply Challenges
"An instant fix after an extremely stressful and uncertain period"
"There were no guarantees that a new drinking water supply could be found"
Holiday Let Owner in the Pentland Hills, Scotland.
Our client and his family own a farm steading in the Pentland Hills which they also operate as a small commercial holiday let
In the hot summer of 2022, their private spring water supply dried up for a short period and then unfortunately became contaminated making it unsuitable to be used as a drinking water supply. This presented significant challenges over the next 6 months as they tried to identify alternative reliable source of potable water. To compound these challenges the introduction of new Short-Term-Letting Licensing Legislation in Scotland now requires operators to meet minimum water quality standards, putting at risk our client’s ability to secure a new license and to continue operating their holiday let business.
In this case study, we explore how our client addressed these challenges and demonstrate how the WaterOne technology is able to provide a simple, quick and cost effective solution to help address water quality issues.
The problem
Drinking water unusable over night
“You just take these things for granted, to suddenly not be able to turn on your tap and drink the water was very stressful and challenging at the time”
A private water supply that had operated successfully for many years suddenly became contaminated and failed the prerequisite regulatory tests for providing potable water. A “Boil Notice” was issued and users were no longer able to use the water for cooking or drinking requiring water to be supplied in 1.5L plastic bottles at significant ongoing expense over a 6-month period.
Immediate reliance on plastic bottled water
*CASE STUDY UPDATE*
Current Legislation, requires commercial properties to provide potable water for their guests. If a private supply is deemed unsafe, businesses often resort, at significant expense, to provide bottled water. In our client's 6 person property, this would have resulted in 3,650 1.5L bottles over 6 months (£1 each at tesco).
At IF, we see bottled water used, all around the world, when there is uncertainty of water quality. It is one of our core missions, to remove that uncertainty, and the reliance on environmentally damaging plastic bottled water.
It took six months to get a new supply up and running
"After enduring a 6-month period without potable water a new drinking water supply was eventually commissioned"
This period was extremely stressful and uncertain for our client and his family as there were no guarantees that a new drinking water supply could be found despite significant up front drilling costs.
When installing boreholes, the first drill is not always successful, leading to extended timelines and increased costs.
£35,000 investment to drill and connect a new potable water supply
"Despite conducting geological surveys, when we started drilling, we had an open cheque book and had no idea if we were going to have to spend £20k or £100k to establish a new drinking water supply."
Because IF’s WaterOne was not commercially available at this time, our client had to address the problem by investing in drilling a new borehole.
However, drilling boreholes is a hit or miss business often taking several attempts and requiring upfront payment every time. Additional costs associated with electrical connections, running pipework, water purification and testing at £300 per test also need to be factored in when connecting a new water supply.
What we did
We installed a WaterOne water generator
"The technology was so easy to connect to water supply and within an hour we were able to produce potable drinking water”
Although the WaterOne Treatment was not commercially available when the supply issues were experienced by our client, an opportunity arose to carry out trials on the original supply to see if the technology could deliver the required drinking water quality faster and more cost effectively when compared to establishing a new borehole supply.
IF tested the water before and after using UKAS labs
The more data available the better, but we will always do a full suite regardless -Chris Bruce, IF Senior Test Engineer
As with all WaterOne trial instillations, our engineers took multiple before and after samples to measure the effectiveness of the system.
We were testing for a range of contaminants including Bacteria and Heavy Metals like Manganese previously found in the area.
The results
WaterOne would have enabled our client to save £25,000 and quickly address their water quality issues.
Scottish Water provided us with the test results which demonstrated the WaterOne successfully passed all the required standards. Bacteria, E. coli, heavy metals, and other parameters within the full Drinking Water Inspectorate suite were removed.
This is just one example of where drinking water quality and access can change over-night, and a lack of a reliable alternative technology led to a very significant investment to address the water quality challenges.
Why the WaterOne system works
The IF WaterOne system uses vapour distillation converting water into vapour, then condensing it to produce purified water.
This method uses no consumable parts, which over time clog and fail, letting through harmful contaminants.
The high internal temperatures remove all Bacteria and Viruses, and distillation's robust and reliable process ensures a consistent supply of safe drinking water from any source.
Key numbers
£25k
Saving over traditional options
3,650
1.5L plastic bottles avoided*
594kg
of CO2e saved in one year **
*Assuming the usual full bookings of 6 guests, consuming the recommended 5 litres a day for drinking and cooking, over a 6 month period.
**Calculated based on 163g of CO2e per 1.5L bottle concluded by THE BEVERAGE INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL ROUNDTABLE
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