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How much water?

S

SolarPanelCleaning

Was wondering how much water people get through on an average 8 window house?

I'm using about 25l a house. Seems like a lot!

 
Depends on what I have the flow rate set on for the type of clean I'm doing and if I can be bothered or not to keep turning the water off/on.

I'm sure richard will be along in a min to tell you about the type of brushes too

 
I'd better get speedier and more efficient then!

Is Richard in retailing?

 
You might be able to turn your water flow rate down if the brush is slow to use (or you are using it wrong)

If its any help, 1 litre of water will cover 1 square metre area, 1mm deep, how many sq metres of glass do you clean with 25lt, then again more dirt needs more water.

 
You might be able to turn your water flow rate down if the brush is slow to use (or you are using it wrong)
If its any help, 1 litre of water will cover 1 square metre area, 1mm deep, how many sq metres of glass do you clean with 25lt, then again more dirt needs more water.
This may sound naive, is there an incorrect way of using a brush?

All my jobs have been 'first cleans' so far. Maybe my usage is more typical of this?

 
For first cleans your probably not using that much water, I would tend to expect to use more than 25lt, but it does all depends on what you are cleaning.

There are different types of brush bristle; but method is the key.

For dirty first cleans I will use a Nylon or boars brush first with a higher water flow rate and go over all the window frames & glass quite fast removing all the dirt in a minutes, just leaving mainly dirty surface water, I am not trying to get the glass perfectly clean at this stage, that would take to long. I then swap brushes to a clean brush with Polyester bristles, I go to the first window I started with, and clean the glass to a spot free finish, this is a very quick process, as all I am doing is removing dirty water and any missed stubborn marks easily come off as they have had a chance to soak.

You can only use 1 brush, but I never try to get the glass spot free with a badly soiled brush, as it takes much longer. If the first clean isn’t bad, and the customers has had a regular window cleaning service in the past, you can just use a maintenance clean brush without problem.

 
This may sound naive, is there an incorrect way of using a brush?
All my jobs have been 'first cleans' so far. Maybe my usage is more typical of this?
Think the only thing to get wrong is not having the bristles square onto the glass. First cleans can require double the usual amount of water. You could save some water & be more confident of a good job by sill-clothing the downstairs frames & squeegeeing the glass (one pane at a time though as you need to make most of water & soap remnant left) but the squeegee will shudder on turns in bottom half of the larger panes so some microfibre drying required.

 
I would use at least 25ltrs on such a house. Full pelt on the varistream and fanjets gets the job done quicker, making us more efficient and better off. Rationing water on jobs is a total false economy........

 
I suppose it's a matter of deciding which has the greater cost, time or purified water? Saving a few minutes by rinsing with lots of water may be cheaper than being more conservative with the pump? I dunno. Can't be bothered to work costs per litre of water and per minute of my time. For me there's an additional fuel cost to carrying more water, as I live in the **** end of nowhere and have to travel alot!

 
You’re right SPC it’s really not that important to work it out to the penny, it’s much better to keep your operating figure in mind, as your working hourly rate is much higher.

Pure Water cost per hour, over a 6 hour working day, could be anywhere between £0.28p per hour, and £0.84p per hour if you use 1000lt per day.

 
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