The amount of limescale on the heat exchanger in my gas combi boiler should be reducing now, after 5 years of steady accumulation. My hope is that the house will use a bit less gas, and emit a bit less CO2.

The other reasons why I installed a water softener are:

• I intend to install solar water heating, and I don't want its heat exchanger to be impaired by limescale.
• Less time cleaning the bathroom, and no money to spend on anti-limescale cleaners.
• The washing machine and other appliances should last longer. In my previous house the loo stopped working because of limescale building up!

The model I had installed is a Kinetico 2020c. This softener doesn't use any electricity, it uses water pressure to refresh the ion exchange chamber with brine, so the only consumable is salt.

Regular readers (hey don't snigger, there's at least one actually) will remember I talked about getting a magnetic water softener ages ago. I decided against that because although I think they can work in some situations, I wanted something that would definitely work for me.