IAPMO vice president of technical services and research Christopher Lohr tells Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman how decades-old pipe-sizing methods bury hidden costs in every home, and how the Water Demand Calculator lets builders right-size plumbing for real construction and connection-fee savings.
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Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah Gutterman. I am the CEO of Green Builder Media and I am here today with Christophe Lower, the Vice President of Technical Services and Research for I am. You've often talked about the hidden cost of water inside of homes. Why is water system design such an overlooked lever in the housing affordability conversation, and why should builders care about it right now?
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Christopher Lohr: So. So when I first say is that really plumbing tends to be a bit overlooked, I think in large part due to its own success. You know, oftentimes we only think of plumbing when something's not working. And more often than not, the plumbing systems aren't working. But in this case, because of some of that oversight of a plumbing and its success, we haven't really updated some of our ways of doing design.
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Christopher Lohr: And so, you know, you have, at this point, kind of a hidden costs. And we're utilizing a very old method, back from the 1940s, predominantly the Hunter's cur fixed unit method, to, to size our piping system. So you have these hidden costs of connection fees and pipe sizing that's oversize. And really what we want to drive towards is modern sizing.
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Christopher Lohr: And that equals direct savings. And that's the water demand calculator, you know, which was included in as early in the 2018 UPC, in the 2017 Water Efficiency and Sanitation Standard to the standards we created. You know, allows for this right sizing of pipe reduction. And, and really there's this permitting risk, that that comes with, with over sizing, you know, water scarcity is already kind of, creating, you know, a lot of entitlements and challenges between jurisdictions and water purveyors.
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Christopher Lohr: You know, a lot of cities are beginning to require net zero water plans, or, and or pausing new hookups for water supply constraints, including my home state here in Arizona. So, you know, oh, you know, we've overlooked it for so long. But now is really the time to to look at, you know, this new way of right sizing at the front end, of design and construction.
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Sara Gutterman: We often talk about energy efficiency and electrification as critical pathways to zero. But water efficiency rarely gets equal air time. How do you see water efficiency fitting into the larger decarbonization and affordability narrative for housing?
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Christopher Lohr: First off, and we would definitely want to look at the Water Sense program, which since 20 up since 2006, has saved almost 8.7 trillion gallons of water nationally. So prove that water efficiency is a high impact, low cost path alongside energy retrofits. But you know, right size water systems now are providing additional savings of that. Working very well along with these is, you know, more efficient plumbing fixtures in part by shortening that time to tap and reducing hot water volume, sitting in the pipe.
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Christopher Lohr: Something in the technical around we call structural water waste. And all of that combined works on lowering bills and emissions and the time waiting for, you know, hot water to come to your shower, and all that that's tied to water heating.
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Sara Gutterman: The, the water demand calculator has been a game changer. Can you walk us through how it works and why using it results in smaller diameter pipes and lower material and labor costs for builders.
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Christopher Lohr: So when it comes to sizing the pipe on the engineering side of the design side, you know, there's two main criteria that we use the size of pipe. It's your available pressure and then your peak flow rate, which is an estimate of what the highest flow rate would be based on what that probability of simultaneous uses of all the plumbing fixtures, you know, the showers, the toilets, the sinks, everything else in your in your home.
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Christopher Lohr: So the peak water demand, which is embedded in the uniform plumbing code UPC and we stand it estimates what that whole building and then the different branches. If you imagine tree or trunk and then your branches out to the tree before you get to your twigs, what that likelihood of simultaneous usage. And so the higher that estimate is the bigger the pipe will need to have to accommodate for that.
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Christopher Lohr: So when you get a more accurate estimation of that peak flooring and the hunter's curve, you know, especially on like some larger multifamily, you know, overestimate that peak for it by a factor of 20 times, not 20%, but 20 times, or so water demand check. There typically is that range of two times oversize. So there's a safety factor but not as gross of a safety factor.
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Christopher Lohr: That once you get a smaller diameter of piping on your mains of your branches. And so, you know, especially with those lower diversified, modern fixtures and the, you know, not treating a home like a sports stadium, all of that allows for smaller service line mains, branches, risers, etc.. You know, this cuts down on material fittings. The transportation costs, and often shrinks the meter size to make you more accurate in reducing some of the, the inaccuracies of oversize meters.
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Christopher Lohr: So all of this, you know, is these positive results that come from it and, you know, one of the, reports that we commissioned with Stantec, you know, documented many of these effects of processing.
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Sara Gutterman: How significant are the cost savings when builders right sized piping using the water demand calculator compared to traditional sizing methods? Can you give us some real world examples or a range?
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Christopher Lohr: You know, we looked at, you know, the Stantec report in terms of construction cost savings, looked at, a 45 unit building, and the overall estimates, based on the construction costs and the connection fee savings, there was a range. Again, depending on where you're at, there's different cost to connection fees and pipe materials based on what region of the country.
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Christopher Lohr: But, a 45 in a building, you could see somewhere in the range of $86,000 to $190,000 in savings. You know, when we looked at other documents and other studies out there, you know, typical single family home could be 2000 to $5000 per home. For the pipe materials, the construction cost savings. We just found out about a project in Portland, Oregon.
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Christopher Lohr: Low income housing. And that particular project that we did a webinar on, you know, I'd done some training on that one. Saved almost 400,000, for for that particular complex. I think it was about 50 homes, if I remember correctly. So so we're seeing some pretty amazing savings, and it just depends on where you're actors. If your connection fees are lower than some of those, your pipe materials are lower cost.
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Christopher Lohr: And it might be a little bit, Lauren. But again, you know, we're we're seeing a pretty, pretty high range oftentimes especially for multi-family six figures for single family homes, you know, 2000 and $5,000. And it's a it doesn't solve the housing affordability, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
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Sara Gutterman: Beyond upfront cost savings. What long term operational benefits do Rightsize systems offer for homeowners, especially around water delivery, water waste and energy used for water heating?
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Christopher Lohr: But the two, I guess there's kind of two sides of this amazing point. One is, you know, there's, just a sustainability benefit, which also, you know, can improve operation costs. So the first one is faster hot water delivery time. Because smaller piping, you need less flushing time to displace a the water. That's going to your shower.
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Christopher Lohr: You know, nobody a lot of people don't, you know, when they're trying to shower, they wait for that water to heat up, that the water's cooled off over time. And there's a certain amount of structural waterway, so less water wasted, that that occurs by that, and additionally less energy that's needed to, to heat that water.
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Christopher Lohr: And so, you know, when you look at the studies for water waste equates to about 500 gallons, her home, per year, which is about the same as an outdoor hot tub. The other benefit is improved water quality. You know, when you lower that third, you reduce the pipe size, you rightsize it, you get a more in line with the actual flow rates.
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Christopher Lohr: You're limiting water agent stagnation. And there's a lot of important public health and safety benefits, of, of that right sizing and lowered water when it comes to a single family. And but also.
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Sara Gutterman: Now for builders tackling new construction, what are the say the top three most impactful water smart design decisions they should be integrating in from day one.
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Christopher Lohr: I would say. I mean, first off, what we've been talking about Sarah Thorpe adopting the the water demand calculator and using that, whether it's from the UPC or the we stand, you know, start early on in schematic design. You know, your forward design planners should definitely be looking at this for your developments or for your, your apartment complex as well.
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Christopher Lohr: The second would be specifying water sets, label fixtures and appliances. You know, that works really well in tandem. You know, there's not going to be, there's going to be an ongoing cost savings for both of those who the owner. And then last but not least, and worth mentioning here is designing for distribution efficiency. So one of the things that we talked about that we kind of mentioned about in the engineering realm is centralizing wet walls using shorter hot water runs.
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Christopher Lohr: You bring the water heater closer to the fixtures that you serve. You know that having such a spread and these are things that are located in my utmost water efficiency standard. The reason that, as I mentioned before, and so these kind of things, all three of these in tandem can really help communities and builders implement water savings, that are also cost effective.
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Sara Gutterman: For retrofit or remodeling projects. Christoph, what practical water efficiency upgrades should Remodelers and homeowners prioritize in order to improve performance without driving up costs?
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Christopher Lohr: One is, you know, swapping legacy fixtures for water sense models. You know, the next one, as I mentioned, you know, any repurposing, utilize that water to make it. Actually one of the best ways. And using the water connector is for adaptive reuse or renovation projects, because you might be able to show instead of having to upsize your incoming water main, you might be able to use the existing one that's in place that would size with that older methodology.
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Christopher Lohr: Last but not least, take a look at smart leak detection and, monitoring, especially in older buildings. If you're reusing piping, there's that potential that piping over time becomes a bit leaky. So having that input into it, maybe even as early as some of the construction, you might be able to determine if there's ongoing leakage and repair during the construction process.
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Christopher Lohr: So those are just three quick and easy ways that that have long term value for, for the builder and then also for the homeowner.
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Sara Gutterman: Water reuse systems like greywater and rainwater harvesting can sound expensive or complicated to integrate. What are some scalable, cost conscious ways that builders can start introducing reuse systems, especially in drought prone areas?
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Christopher Lohr: The first thing always to do is to check with your local, you know, wherever your jurisdiction is, you know they everybody has different rules on, what sort of, onsite water reuse, methods and technologies you can use. But, but in general, you know, there's a lot of opportunities and to find the right technology to go along with what you're trying to do in, in the area that you're working in.
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Christopher Lohr: So you really want to fit for purpose. And that way, and, and rainwater and greywater for irrigation and toilet flushing are some of the lowest complexity entries when it comes to that. I mean, I am a we have a number of reuse standards. And we that covers a lot, but we reference other standards, such as NSF 30 which is targeted primarily at residential if you're doing like a multi-family building.
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Christopher Lohr: I know Z 1324 is a good one to look at. RCA has a number of guidance on rainwater catchment systems. So it's really important to have these kind of, industry standards because our industry, the plumbing industry, we rely on standards like this to make sure that we all meet a common, a common practice, basically, you know, as jurisdictions increasingly discuss net zero water planning and broader use, and builders who want to pilot basic standards of land reuse, are really being positioned well because they're kind of leading in a way.
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Christopher Lohr: They're actually able to sort of shape the conversation, too. So from a long term strategic standpoint for builders, you know, getting involved in this early, you know, especially as some jurisdictions are looking at making requirements around water reuse, really well, well set up that organization. Well, for the long term, because they're going to have some of the most initial experience in that regard.
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Christopher Lohr: So it is something that we're seeing a trend in industry right now.
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Sara Gutterman: What policy or regulatory shifts could most accelerate the adoption of water efficient and rightsize plumbing systems across the U.S.?
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Christopher Lohr: But first off, it's interesting. We've had 18 jurisdictions, that we know of, you know, 12 states, six cities that that, have adopted the water demand calculator. But what's interesting is there's a number of them and actually codified right sizing in the sense of mandating, places like Castle Rock, Colorado, Seattle, Seattle, King County, Vancouver, you know, all these places are now starting up next time for British Columbia and Canada.
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Christopher Lohr: These have all started kind of making, the uniform plumbing Code appendix A requirement, as part of submitting permits. You know, there's other there's other opportunities, too, because some of the utility sides are also aligning towards this as well, particularly because of the concerns of oversize meters, and that potential, of losing revenue and not seeing leakages.
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Christopher Lohr: So you're having a number of places that are, are starting to recommend, right sizing the water demand calculator and, and really decoupling the connection fees from that legacy meter sizing based on the old school, you know, almost nine year old method I and it's worth noting, 22 manual 21 now from from you know that focuses on the utilization.
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Christopher Lohr: They actually recommend the use of the water demand calculator. One of the other policy regulatory shifts is definitely the center of water sense, homes and reuse. You know, we're seeing rebates, tap credits for efficiency. And reuse installations accelerating, in the market. And, and so there's a definite shift in a lot of places, that, you know, they're looking like that.
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Christopher Lohr: They're looking for opportunities for some kind of water savings. Especially, some of our traditional water sources are starting to dry up. You know, places like Arizona, we've seen a lot of cuts around the Colorado River. So these topics of what can we do on a decentralized local, on site level? The conversations continue to amplify and not only volume, but also in frequency.
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Sara Gutterman: What innovations or technologies are on the horizon that could further disrupt the water efficiency space, especially in ways that support affordability?
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Christopher Lohr: So I think that, you know, my sense is if I was to make a prediction, I think that no matter what happens, there are going to be people that are going to want to see that type of, that type of efficiency in their homes. You know, I just bought a home, a new home. I actually come from, from my office.
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Christopher Lohr: And, you know, we, we worked with, with Katie Holmes and, you know, they, they used water sounds, fixtures. And that was one of the things that actually I looked for. So I'm not the only one. I think there's a lot of people out there that, that just want to see it in some way, shape or form, because people are mindful.
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Christopher Lohr: And so, my sense is that there's going to be some form and some, you know, segment of the population that are going to want to see those types of things in the homes that they buy.