Developers need to ensure their plumbing solutions stay up to date with current building trends, as Richard Bateman, Product Marketing Manager at RWC UK, explains.
Despite the growing appeal of country living due the pandemic, one of the biggest trends in construction is high-rise buildings to keep up with growing city populations.
Ensuring a safe, sustainable and metered water supply for every apartment is essential in high-rise buildings. Ideally a number of valves such as a stop valve, pressure reducing valve, double check valve, and a water meter are often plumbed into airing cupboards on each floor.
However, with more apartments squeezed into tighter footprints, these products must be installed in smaller spaces. This is where products such as Reliance Valves’ Tenant Valve Plus are highly beneficial. This valve combines all the above functions into one compact, self-contained unit.
Keeping in mind future maintenance and servicing, all components of Tenant Valves can be easily accessed from one side and they come with an insulating cover to prevent condensation.
Keep it green
Heat pumps work most efficiently when heating water only up to around 35-40°C. To make these pumps compatible with radiators sustainably, the radiators would need to be roughly six times their standard size. When a radiator’s average surface temperature is 70°C in a room heated to 20°C, there is a 50°C difference. However, if you drop the average surface temperature of the radiator to 35°C, you only have a 15°C difference. The heat then becomes reluctant to leave the radiator, and the room does not heat up.
Underfloor heating, then, is a great alternative for radiators, especially as it is hidden beneath the floor, offering much more living space. With wet UFH, the system only needs to run between 35-40°C to heat up the water in the pipework and transfer the heat into the room.
RWC’s John Guest Underfloor heating brand offers a whole suite of UFH solutions to complete any new build or retrofit installation efficiently. We also offer a free CAD design and estimation service to assist with selecting the best system for their project, sourcing the right quantity of material and helping them make the installation as efficient as possible.
Speeding up construction
Working in small, confined spaces, there is even greater need to adopt smarter, time saving and reliable products to complete jobs faster. This means moving away from traditional techniques, like soldering, and towards more innovative and smarter methods like push-fit fittings and valves.
At RWC, we offer a complete plastic and metal push-fit range from our JG Speedfit and SharkBite brands. Both our brass and plastic push-fit ranges complement each other, and work with copper and plastic pipe to provide a complete solution from boiler to the point of use.
With the newer ways of working brought on by the pandemic, it’s important that builders and installers collaborate more with manufacturers to share their on-site challenges while adopting new technologies and practices. This can help the construction sector complete jobs quickly and efficiently while offering a futureproofed solution to their customers.
