Every year, March 22 is dedicated to water. This day is intended to raise awareness of the need to treat this valuable resource with care, because: While water scarcity used to occur mainly in the Earth's dry belt or in southern regions, problems with drought due to rising temperatures are becoming increasingly common in regions that were previously considered to be water-rich - such as Austria and the whole of Europe. At the same time, the increase in the world's population and the associated demand for water has exacerbated the supply situation - making water a valuable and important commodity. The Rabmer Group from Altenberg near Linz (Upper Austria) dedicated itself to the efficient use of water and energy 30 years ago. This has resulted in innovative solutions that now help private individuals, companies and municipalities worldwide to save water and energy.
Saving water starts in the bathroom
"Each and every one of us uses around 130 liters of water every day. With simple changes in our behavior or innovative tools for the household, each and every one of us can actively reduce our water consumption," says Rabmer Managing Director Ulrike Rabmer-Koller. "It's very easy to do this in the bathroom, for example: standard showers and washbasin taps often have a water flow rate of 12 to 15 liters per minute. If you consider that people often shower for up to 10 minutes and wash their hands very frequently, this already adds up to a large amount of hot water." Consumption can be drastically reduced by technical means - for example by using low-flow shower heads. However, these often result in a noticeable loss of comfort. To prevent this from happening, the Rabmer Group relies on the Ecoturbino system for the shower: easy to install without tools, this mini turbine saves around 40 percent water and energy with every shower without the shower user noticing. With this small tool, a household of four people can reduce hot water consumption in the shower by around 44,000 liters. A hotel with 100 rooms can even reduce water consumption in the showers by around 1,500,000 liters per year using the same technology. The mini turbine is supplemented by flow limiters for taps. These reduce the amount of water to an economical 5 liters per minute. "Our Ecoturbino system not only saves valuable water in the bathroom, but also reduces energy consumption and operating costs as well as CO2 emissions. A win-win for us and the environment," Rabmer-Koller is certain.
Environmentally friendly descaling & saving water and energy
Austria is known for its excellent drinking water, not least thanks to its high levels of healthy calcium and magnesium. However, it is precisely these minerals that are responsible for the formation of unpleasant limescale deposits. Costly repairs, broken household appliances and machines, high cleaning costs and rising energy costs are the result. "For every millimeter of limescale on the heat exchanger or heating coil, the energy costs for heating water increase by around 7 percent. If pipes and appliances are affected by limescale deposits, increased pumping capacity is also necessary, which in turn consumes more energy and increases costs without you noticing it straight away. The nasty surprise then comes with the energy bill," says Rabmer-Koller. Traditional, salt-based descaling systems are often used as the method of choice to combat limescale. "However, these systems not only require a lot of maintenance, but also - depending on the degree of hardness - use a lot of additional water for rinsing and regenerating the systems, which leads to increased water consumption. So alternatives are needed here." Rabmer's Aquabion prevents corrosion and limescale in households, residential complexes and industrial plants - without the use of chemicals, salt or magnets. The device is used directly on the main water pipe and requires no maintenance, electricity or additional water. This saves water, energy and money.
Turning wastewater into green energy
Even "dirty" wastewater is not sent carelessly and unused to the sewage treatment plant by Rabmer. Using innovative heat exchangers and heat pumps, clean energy is extracted from the wastewater that is produced every day in households and businesses: "Wastewater is a 100% renewable energy source that can be used to heat and cool buildings sustainably. Wastewater is available regionally, free of charge and all year round, making us independent of critical energy sources such as oil and gas. The thermal use of wastewater has enormous potential and enables water that would otherwise run unused through our sewer system to be used efficiently and in a resource-saving manner for heating and cooling. If the heat pumps are operated using solar power via a photovoltaic system, for example, the energy obtained from the wastewater is completely CO2-neutral," says Rabmer-Koller. The Rabmer Group's current energy from wastewater projects include the new Wien Kanal headquarters to be built in 2021 and the VIO Plaza complex currently under construction directly on the U4 underground line, which will be home to apartments, offices, a hotel and shopping and catering outlets.
Eliminate water loss due to leaking pipes
Pipes and shafts are often damaged or leaking due to ageing, deposits and corrosion. As a result, waste water and pollutants often end up in our groundwater. On the other hand, leaking drinking water pipes cause an enormous waste of this precious resource. With our technologies for the inspection and trenchless rehabilitation of pipes and manholes, we offer a fast and environmentally friendly solution.
