Firm that aims to be flushed with success

Graham Kelly and David Davis, directors at Leeds-based building services company G&H Group, have launched Encore, an environmentally friendly cistern which uses a sustainable water supply that otherwise would have been drained to waste.

Mr Davis said: “For decades we’ve designed and installed schemes and watched the stream of water produced by air conditioning units literally go down the drain but not via the toilet.

“When you consider how many buildings use air conditioning across the world, billions of litres of condensate water is generated all of which has been wasted – until now.”

Encore holds 18-litres of water which is three times more than a conventional cistern but its dual-chamber design means it still fits like standard models.

The bottom chamber holds six litres, which comes from the mains pipe. The upper 12-litre chamber is filled with air conditioning condensate.

When the toilet is flushed, the lower chamber empties and refills with condensate from the upper chamber.

If there are multiple flushes close together or the air conditioning is not in use, the cistern is filled in the conventional way from the mains fed pipe.

If the toilet is not used for a while, surplus condensate is fed away. Gravity feeds condensate water into the cistern.

“Encore is a radical improvement on all conventional cisterns,” Mr Davis said. “Air conditioning units have a pipe that drains away all the condensate.

“We’ve developed the only cistern in the world that uses this free water to flush the toilet.”

Encore is the result of intensive research and development over three years and is being manufactured in Yorkshire.

The business believes the cistern is ideal for those building and refurbishing hotels, villas, apartments, offices – anywhere with toilets and air conditioning.

Encore will also allow architects, consultants and specifiers to secure two extra BREEAM credits – the gauge of how sustainable a building is.

The patented technology means the amount of water used in each flush is adjustable from six to 1.5 litres to meet different international requirements.

Mr Davis said: “Responsible businesses striving to construct the greenest buildings know BREEAM credits are very hard to come by.

“Being able to gain two new credits for something as simple as choosing the right cistern is a great advantage.”

Figures from hotel industry data specialist STR Global shows 15,119 rooms in 114 hotels are currently being built in the UK.

The company says that compared to traditional cisterns using Encore would save each of these hotels 1.92 million litres based on standard 80 per cent occupancy levels.

In total, Encore would save them 218 million litres of water filling the equivalent of 87 Olympic swimming pools a year.

Water savings are higher in hotter climates where more condensate is generated.

Mr Kelly and Mr Davis are both directors at G&H. The Leeds-based firm delivers the entire mechanical and electrical (M&E) process from design, build and installation to ongoing maintenance.

The £25m building services company was formed in 1998. Its clients include Rolls-Royce, NHS, Premier Inn, JJ Rhatigan, Coca-Cola, Sewell Group, CBRE, GMI Construction, Leeds City College, Caddick Construction, Henry Boot, Asda and Interserve.