Having been involved in the plumbing industry for 46 years and in a family business with 70 plus years involvement it was a natural progression to become involved in design and consultation writes Peter Jackson.

Our business had many clients who would regularly enquire about one off design applications for their factory, workplace or home. As we improved at fulfilling their needs our design branch grew.

h2o design ltd is now established within New Zealand particularly in the South Island and has many clients who are testimony to the ability of the Company.

One such entity is the Invercargill Licensing Trust who control the liquor and hospitality within the Invercargill boundary. Their flagship hotel, Ascot Park, one of many in the city had a major problem with their water supply within the building and the motel units adjacent to the hotel.

The cold water supply corroded over the years and had always shown signs of an inadequate supply to the far reaches of the accommodation wings; the supply was also noisy with a water hammer that occurred from time to time.

After discussions with the client, it was established their main problem was noise and corrosion, our brief was to design a completely new cold water system and alleviate the problems they were experiencing.

Invercargill has 60PSI water supply at the main, it was also important that friction and flow rates were calculated to ensure a complete supply delivery to all fixtures.

The pipe system chosen was Fusiotherm, an innovative plastic system, used worldwide.

A German manufactured product made of Fusiotherm PP/R. It has great welding properties for permanent connections; it is environmentally friendly and can be recycled. It is extremely quite with excellent velocity rates for the application of potable water at the pressures we applied.

Fusiotherm is a cost effective system and easy to install.

The hotel has an 85% occupancy rate, it was necessary to ensure that the hotel could be kept going at all times throughout the contract. Being able to install the Fusiotherm and bracket adjacent to the existing system was all part of the design.

The hotel is now fully functional on the new system, the design has ticked all the boxes, the territorial authority has issued the code of compliance and the Invercargill Licensing Trust is extremely pleased with the completed contract. Less noise, improved flow rates, less cleaning of water stains on vitreous china, all on a system that is environmentally friendly.

Hopefully in further issues we can talk about other products such as under floor heating systems, and their new installation criteria. We also have innovative in wall and in ceiling pipe arrays which have the added advantage of heating and cooling.

Already installation of under floor systems is changing, where we used to fit the pipe work about 50 percent below or above in 100mm slab, it is now being recommended that the pipe work is fitted in the top 25 percent in the slap to ensure greater heating efficiency. More to come on this subject.

Peter Jackson is the Designer/Director of h2o design ltd.
Contact
http://www.h2odesign.co.nz