IAPMO's John Watson argues that codes, standards and rightsized plumbing and mechanical systems are an underused lever for housing affordability. He points to the Water Demand Calculator and the WE-Stand efficiency document as proof that better-performing systems can also cost less.
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John Watson: I do recognize that actually, between you and cocktails. So I promise I will be brief.
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John Watson: And that's all I have to say. As I was sitting listening to all these is the speakers to sayings came to mind. You probably both know what you know what both of them are. First is, why do we do it that way? Well, because we always write. And if you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.
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John Watson: Right. So we got to start moving the needle backwards. So when I think of our piece of the puzzle, I think that we are a solutions facilitator. If you don't know about it, at home we write codes and standards. That's one of the things we do. We also test and certify products. But I want to go back to the kind of the codes and standards piece, says Sarah.
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John Watson: You just can't right sizing idea. Big is not always better. Right. When we build homes, we tend to oversize things because we don't want to call time. We're talking about callbacks, right? I don't want to have to go back. So I'm just going to do this right? Well guess what. We have the technology today that we can do things right.
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John Watson: And then if we have to expand on that building by putting out a second floor, we upsize the system. It's not a problem. So I atmo actually coauthored something called a West End document. Is there anyone in this room here that it's an efficiency document that basically looks at your plumbing and mechanical systems. If you want to take a higher efficiency approach?
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John Watson: Because remember, we still have to worry about public health and safety. So we don't want folks running off and just trying any old thing. But we have to have a system that embraces change and change for the good. So the way we kind of view this as is, is that things will start in the East End. And as we learn about them, they become more common framed than they might make it into the model code.
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John Watson: Right. So we've got the West End in a big piece of that we stand is the water demand calculator. Anybody ever heard of that? I know you have. So this is a way that you can size your piping system to be more appropriate for the use, as opposed to an old statistical formula that was put together in the 1940s.
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John Watson: And guess what? Our research shows that it performs better and it costs less. Interesting. We're talking about affordability. So we're going to make something better. And it actually costs less. That sounds like a really good solution doesn't it. So our mindset just has to shift that. So I gave you a couple of examples of products that we have today and the concept.
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John Watson: But thinking about it from a manufacturers perspective. When you go watch the show here, which I hope you will do, you're going to find all kinds of very cool products, things that do things better, faster. And most importantly, we were talking about this earlier, more efficient not necessarily transformation but efficient. There's a big difference. You have to do things efficiently to get the best benefit from.
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John Watson: So when you think about this, we start looking at products. We have the technology today to have things like leak detection devices that automatically shut off the water because it recognizes that there's an undesirable flow. Insurance companies love this because of floating houses anymore. We don't know of a hose from our washing machine. We don't know if our cartridges are positive, which we really care.
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John Watson: Now we've got a technology that is can be spent for good. Use it to protect the health and safety of the public in your home. So there are all kinds of solutions out there from the mechanical side and heating and cooling. We have radiant heating. We have ground source heat pumps. And the list just goes on and on and on.
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John Watson: But if we are not at the forefront embracing these things, which I know for the most part, I'm preaching to the choir because you are all part of this movement. I agree that we need to stay involved. We as an industry need to work together. And I will say from I am a physician, we want to be that organization that helps broker these types of ideas.
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John Watson: We understand that there's a health and safety aspect of it. So we want to be involved in writing standards for the products so that they are safe and can perform well. And we want to be in the code safe to write that as well. But we're not pushing those thresholds. We don't have a process to do that. We're not going to get into.
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John Watson: Thankfully, I often has to process all of this, but it involves all of you as well. So my message is, as you suggest, let's all continue to work together because it's not all doom and gloom. The truth is, we have the technology, and we have the horsepower and the strength and the knowledge to advance this. So let's continue to work together to do some.