What is Whole House filtration?

A whole house filter is an extremely cost-effective and convenient way to have filtered water throughout your home, as only one set of filters ever needs changing. Rather than having separate ones for the shower, under-sink, fridge and so on, it means less hassle when ordering replacements and less work for YOU when replacing them. Having a whole house filter can benefit these areas of the house:

  • Washing machine
  • Showers
  • Filtered drinking water from all taps
  • And more!

How does it work?

With a Whole House system, the filter is usually fitted to the water inlet of your home so every drop of water you use has been filtered – whether it’s for drinking, washing cooking or cleaning. There are different sizes and types of filter available to suit every home, from simple carbon filters that remove chlorine, sediment and VOCs to heavy metal removal filters for houses which still have their water supplied through lead pipes. Before deciding on the filter, it’s important to know what peak flow rate is needed for your household, as well as an idea of daily usage to calculate the necessary filter capacity.

 

Why might I want to purchase a whole house system?

A whole house filter has many advantages over a point of use system. Here are a few examples:

  • Installing and maintaining 1 filter system for the whole house is easier than overseeing multiple point of use filters. (undersink kit, shower filter, etc…)
  • Multiple contaminants can be removed at once. Within one filter system, you can install a number of cartridges and each cartridge can remove more than one contaminant.
  • You are free to pick what cartridges you want to insert into the system to cater for your specific contaminant removal needs.
  • Remove and control limescale, without a softener. One of our filters (TAC) can prevent scale from forming in your pipework, kettles, showers and much more. It can also remove existing scale build up without adding sodium into the water. It has a lifespan of 2-3 years with no maintenance

What should I know before I decide to purchase a whole house system?

A whole-house system is usually comprised of a housing set up, with either 1, 2 or 3+ housings containing an assortment of filter cartridges. There are other options such as bigger pressure vessels that can handle higher flow rates for larger houses with 2+ bathrooms. If this applies to you then you should contact us on 01704 80760 and speak to our sales team.

One thing to consider when deciding to purchase a whole house filter is space – specifically if you have enough space to install your desired unit on the water inlet to your house. Dimensions of the housings can be found on the product pages, so please check you have space to install the systems before you buy.

Another good option is to install a bypass assembly around your water filter system. This usually consists of a shut-off valve on the inlet, outlet and centre of the bypass assembly with piping running over/around the unit so you can divert the water around the unit and still have water running to the house if you need to change the filters. Once you have changed the filter cartridges, you can then re-open the valves to allow the water back into the whole house system, without any downtime.

Flow Rates:

Your peak/required flow rate is usually the deciding factor on the sizing of the system – a choice between 10” jumbo (10” x 4.5”) or a 20” jumbo (20” x 4.5”). Choosing the right size housing is essential to be certain the system will be able to cope with the demand at the peak times of the day, such as; first thing in the morning whilst everyone is taking a shower, the last thing at night when the same thing applies. Peak flow rate times can vary anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour.

Cartridges:

Cartridges that you insert into the housings can also affect flow. The basic rule is essentially the lower the micron rating, the finer the particles it will be able to remove from the water but more restrictive the flow will be. If pressure could potentially be an issue, we’d recommend a higher micron rating in your whole house filter, then using a point of use system such as an under-sink kit or RO further down the line with a smaller micron rating to filter your water of more specific contaminants.

 

Why a whole house system might NOT be the best option for you.

Here at Finersystems, we like to be as transparent with our customers as possible. In some unfortunate cases, a whole house system may not be the best option for customers due to a few parameters. These include:

  • Not having enough space for the system to be installed.
  • Not having sufficient water pressure.
  • An unusal house layout – an unusual house layout can lead to complications with water flow rates,  as if you have a particularly long house, with a bathroom being far away from the incoming water supply then the water could struggle to reach the shower with sufficient pressure after passing through a filter.
  • A large household where the intial cost and running cost of the whole house filter(s) may outweigh the costs of having multiple, more cost effective point of use systems.

As mentioned, if you feel like any of these points may apply to you then please contact us and we will recommend the right options for you!

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