The Water Calculator – the new tool for building professiona
14/04/2011 | The Water Calculator – the new tool for building professionals The BMA’s new Water Calculator was given a ‘soft launch’ in the Autumn of last year. Now it’s beginning to take off. “The launch was deliberately low key,” comments Yvonne Orgill, chief executive of the Bathroom Manufacturers Association. “But this was deliberate since we wanted to make sure that the all-new software, and the huge database of products it contains, actually worked. Now, six months, on we can honestly say that the Water Calculator is a success. It does work and industry professionals are beginning to use it on a regular basis. The icing on the cake is that it was recently short listed in the Sustain awards.” So what exactly is the Water Calculator? What is it and what is it used for? This web-based tool is designed for and targeted at building industry professionals. It is now used by architects, planners, specifiers, contractors, installers and anyone who is affected by the rules laid down in the Building Regulations Approved Document G and The Code for Sustainable Homes. Both of these regulations give strict rules about water usage in a new home. The calculator makes it easier for the professional, at the planning stage, to calculate how much water is theoretically consumed in the new property based on the products which have been chosen. “Like all software it takes a bit of getting used to,” says Orgill. “But after a couple of goes the results which the Calculator produces are quick and accurate. When printed off they can be submitted to the planning authorities as proof of a building’s water consumption. This is a really useful tool and it is entirely free.” When they start a calculation users have a choice. They may register to save all their work or they may remain anonymous and print off their results as they go along. They should also have a good idea of the products they want to use in the calculation. They should already know their preferred bathroom brands, products and product numbers. The calculation simply involves selecting products from the drop-down menus linked to the huge database of water efficient products listed in the BMA’s Water Efficient Product Labelling Scheme. www.water-efficiencylabel.org.uk/ The Calculator updates itself in real time and produces water usage figures as the user progresses. The Calculator can be found at www.thewatercalculator.org.uk/ Beginners can learn how to use it with a new graphics-based package available on the website later this Spring.