The HCAA and Deakin have continued their research partnership to develop a better understanding of water consumption in Australian buildings.

During 2024-2025 the HCAA bought another 3 flow meters so that the project could expand to monitor heated water use in residential apartment buildings and healthcare buildings. Similarly to the findings presented for the cold-water within residential apartment buildings, peak demand formula in AS/NZ 3500 as well as other international plumbing codes significantly over-estimate peak flows leading to oversizing.

If anyone would like access to water use data, please contact Brendan Josey

Design Tools

For those unaware, the HCAA has launched a new cold-water peak demand calculator for residential buildings. The calculator is free to use and can be found here.

In addition to this, Deakin and the HCAA are developing an improved design platform that will enable a designer to size a whole project using the new and more accurate peak demand formula for both cold and heated water in residential buildings.

The platform is currently in its beta phase as Deakin researchers are still collecting heated water data to validate the hot water peak demand formula. However, If HCAA members want to check out the new platform, feel free to jump over to https://plumbingdesigntools.cloud/ and have a play around.

Any feedback and comments are welcomed!