Untangling the Effects of Hydraulic Design on Opportunistic Pathogen Growth Potential with an at-Scale Plumbing Rig.

A building plumbing rig experiment simultaneously examined how water temperature (cold/hot lines), influent disinfectant residual (0-1 mg/L chloramine), flow rate (0.5-2.2 gpm), and water retention time (WRT) of 0-17-days impacted water quality at the point of use.

Four buildings and a flush: Lessons from degraded water quality and recommendations on building water management.

A reduction in building occupancy can lead to stagnant water in plumbing, and the potential consequences for water quality have gained increasing attention. To investigate this, a study was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on water quality in four institutional buildings. Two of these buildings were old (>58 years) and large (>19,000 m), while the other two were new (>13 years) and small (<11,000 m).

Impacts of Municipal Water-Rainwater Source Transitions on Microbial and Chemical Water Quality Dynamics at the Tap.

When rainwater harvesting is utilized as an alternative water resource in buildings, a combination of municipal water and rainwater is typically required to meet water demands. Altering source water chemistry can disrupt pipe scale and biofilm and negatively impact water quality at the distribution level. Still, it is unknown if similar reactions occur within building plumbing following a transition in source water quality.