BREEAM Water monitoring

[edit] Aim and benefits

The aim of this credit is to ensure installation of water consumption monitoring and management. It helps to have a better overview of water consuming systems and devices located in the building, to identify potential faulty equipment and it can be used for water consumption benchmarks for both property managers and building users. It encourages reductions in water consumption.

[edit] When to consider

RIBA Stages 3-4 (Developed Design-Technical Design)

[edit] Step by step guidance

Awaiting content

[edit] Questions to ask while seeking compliance

1. What water sources are considered for the building?
2. Are all the water mains equipped with water meters?
3. What types of water consuming systems will be installed?
4. Will there be any tenancy areas or areas with a high water consumption, e.g. catering facilities, laboratories, swimming pools, car wash, irrigation?
5. What is the predicted total building's water consumption?
6. Will there be a BMS in the building?

[edit] Tools and resources

Knowledge Base - Wat 02 Water monitoring (BREEAM Int. NC 2016)

Knowledge Base - Wat 02 Water monitoring (BREEAM I RFO 2015)

[edit] Tips and best practice

• Double-check that the evidence provided matches up to what you know is included in the building design and is streamlined with other pieces of evidence, e.g. if another piece of evidence shows a water feature on site, make sure this has adequate sub-metering for its scope.
• Sub-metering, in particular with connection to a BMS/energy monitoring and management system, tends to be automatically incorporated by designers into the design of a larger building. For smaller buildings or in some other cases there can be no benefit of additional water consumption sub-metering, see Step by step guidance above.
• Sub-meters aren't particularly expensive in the grand scheme of things.
• Appropriate metering schedule should be incorporated into the building to be able in a future achieve also the BREEAM In-Use energy monitoring issues credits without any additional cost for sub-metering improvement afterwards.

[edit] Typical evidence

[edit] Design Stage Evidence

A schematic/layout drawings for water distribution within the developed area. It should indicate meters on each water supply (incl. boreholes or other private water source), sub-meters on the supply to each tenant area and/or water consuming system.

Technical data sheets, or annotations detailing that each water meter (main and sub) has a pulsed or other open protocol communication output enabling connection to an appropriate utility monitoring and management system (usually BMS) and confirmation that the meters are identifiable to building users (e.g. labelling).

Calculation of the total building's water consumption, with all sub-metered devices/areas listed and if any for areas/systems that are not sub-metered confirmation the water consumption is less than 10% of building's water consumption. .

[edit] Post Construction Stage Evidence

Ask the M&E engineers to check their Design Stage evidence prior to the site visit.
An as built issue of the schematics/layouts evidence to be provided, or confirmed by M&E designer there is no change from Design stage evidence.

On site - photographs of water meters and sub-meters, showing labelling/connection to the energy monitoring and management system. Where BMS present photos of the control station screen to demonstrate that the energy consuming systems are metered and labeled appropriately.

Check that all water consuming systems are present, resp. no other are installed (new water features).

[edit] Applicable Schemes

The guidelines collated in this ISD aim to support sustainable best practice in the topic described. This issue may apply in multiple BREEAM schemes covering different stages in the life of a building, different building types and different year versions. Some content may be generic but scheme nuances should also be taken into account. Refer to the comments below and related articles to this one to understand these nuances. See this document for further guidelines.

• BREEAM Intl. New Construction 2016
• BREEAM Intl. Refurbishment and Fit-out 2015

BRE Global does not endorse any of the content posted and use of the content will not guarantee the meeting of certification criteria.

--Sandra Turcaniova 09:15, 21 Mar 2018 (BST)