OutletThe Offi cial Reece Customer Update We welcome your feedback so please send any comments by e-mail to outlet@reece.com.au or by fax to (03) 9274 0131.

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eThe Snowy Mountain Hydro Scheme

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Watch your movie and breathe easy

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Home landscaping trends in 2015

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ISSUE#159June 2015

THE CRACKThe bathroom with the lot

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WALRAVENTHE PERFECT FIX

When it comes to fixing systems for plumbing & HVAC installations, Walraven is the name that continues to

set the standard globally. Walraven has a proud history of manufacturing innovative, high quality products designed to save installers time on every job. And

today, the company’s extensive range is used by tens of thousands of companies worldwide.

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2 | REECE.COM.AU/OUTLET

Clean Water Inventions Series

LUV WaterWith 750 million people around the world still lacking access to safe, drinkable water and more than 2 million child deaths every year as a result of this issue, the need for new and better clean water technology has never been greater. Our Clean Water Innovations Series looks at the latest ideas from around the globe designed to tackle this huge global health issue.

In this edition, we look at our second innovation, the LUV Water project. Developed by the students at the Integrated Innovation Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, LUV Water uses two systems to purify water in real time.

This clever device uses the weight of water to power UV-LED lights that disrupt the harmful microbes in the water. Coupled with a particle fi lter, the device has the ability to provide clean, safe drinking water for people who need it the most.

The device is completely self-powered and simply uses the gravitational weight of water to rotate a motor that powers the UV-LED lights. These lights kill 99.9% of water borne pathogens, ensuring that the water won’t cause illness.

Irrigation gets social!Reece Irrigation is now on Facebook. Give us the green thumb and hit like to stay up to date with the latest and greatest in irrigation.facebook.com/ReeceIrrigation

Source: www.mashable.com

Watch your movie and breathe easyThere’s nothing like the smell of buttered popcorn at the cinema, but even popcorn can start to grate on your nerves when the person in front of you is loudly tucking into a jumbo tub of it. This, however, is not the biggest problem with going to the cinema these days; it’s the lack of fresh, breathable air in the movie theatre.

Effi cient ventilation and air quality has been an ongoing issue for cinema owners and HVAC professionals for some time now. High outside air loads, stringent acoustic requirements, close temperature control and rapid occupancy changes often force designers to move away from conventional packaged systems, meaning the air we breathe when we’re mid-movie is not always the freshest.

Limelight cinema at Riverlink Shopping Centre in Ipswich, Queensland, has created a customised solution to overcome the pungent popcorn aromas – among other things. Using design, engineering and the latest technology, Limelight has devised a special heat recovery system that can maintain comfort and effi ciency during the cinema’s peak and low occupancy periods.

Together with high effi ciency proprietary heat exchangers, a three-stage 30-70-100 per cent compressor arrangement has been used to provide close temperature control and dehumidifi cation under all conditions. Meanwhile, high indoor air quality is maintained by monitoring CO2 levels in cinemas and running higher levels of outdoor air during peak occupancy.

Limelight’s six on-site cinemas vary between 100-330 seats, meaning a variety of units is needed to cope with differing heat loads. The exchanger units have the capacity to run up to 80 per cent outside air in ‘energy recovery’ mode, with 100 per cent outside air during ‘economy cycle’ on larger units. This means the cinema can vary the fl ow of fresh air and also provide high levels of oxygen within a space.

With systems selected and air quality requirements met, the acoustic engineer and acoustic consultant also adapted the system to operate extra quietly, so it now generates sound levels within the nominated noise criterion of NR 25 – that’s 10-15 dB(A) quieter than the typical offi ce! Between oxygenation, fresh air supply and whisper-quiet noise levels, this custom HVAC system has well and truly earned its moment in the limelight.

As one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of fixing systems, Walraven has a long and proud history. Founded in 1942 by plumber Jan van Walraven, the company has grown to become a major international business with over 950 employees and 8 production facilities in Europe. Walraven’s global headquarters are based in Mijdrecht, Netherlands. To this day, Walraven remains a family business (the great-grandson of the founder is the current CEO).

For more than 70 years, Walraven has been designing and manufacturing smart fixing products for real world applications. Deep industry know-how has always kept the company ahead of the competition and a big part of their success comes from investing heavily in development, continually researching new technologies and bringing the best ideas to market.

While Walraven’s product range has grown significantly over time, all their products share a common DNA. If they carry the Walraven name,

they are guaranteed to be easy-to-use and designed for optimum reliability.

Walraven delivers its high performance fixing range through its state-of-the-art production and tool making facilities. This obsession with quality allows it to manufacture to the highest tolerances while producing more than 1 million pipe clamps and 3 million meters of rail every year.

Right now, Walraven’s three fastest growing products in Australia are BISMAT Flash, BIS

RapidRail and BIS starQuick - each solving a unique problem for installers. Walraven is committed to serving the Australian market and Reece is proud to give our customers accessto their complete range.

So be part of the Walraven experience. With Walraven, you’re always in good hands.

Walraven. The perfect fi x

Source: www.climatecontrolnews.com.au

REECE.COM.AU/OUTLET | 3

Marvel of the modern world The Snowy Hydro Scheme

Green thumbs all round Home landscaping trends in 2015Building a sustainable, low-maintenance garden is top of the agenda in 2015 for our US counterparts. Results from the annual American based Residential Landscape Architecture Trends Survey show that water-effi cient irrigation and rainwater harvesting is a high priority for customers who are looking to do their bit for the environment in their own backyard.

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) conducted the recent survey, asking 581 landscape architects to rate the expected popularity of a variety of residential outdoor design elements.

The survey found respondents expected the greatest demand to be for ecologically sensitive projects which were intended to preserve the environment, conserve water and reduce landscape maintenance. Results also revealed the most

in-demand sustainable design elements as the ones that helped homeowners reduce their environmental footprint. These included native/adapted drought-tolerant irrigation (74%) as well as rainwater harvesting (71%).

Interestingly, the results also showed that one of the most popular outdoor design trends is lighting (72%), which featured as a strong key theme alongside low maintenance, water-effi cient landscaping elements.

“Consumers care about designed landscapes that are attractive, easy to take care of and eco-friendly,” said Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, Executive Vice President and CEO of ASLA. “The survey shows that homeowners increasingly see opportunities to improve the environment right in their own backyard.”

So if there’s one thing we can take away from this, it’s that effi cient irrigation and rainwater harvesting are still hot, and the faux-Tuscan garden style from the 90s is still not!

Source: www.lawnandlandscape.com

One of the biggest ideas this country ever had was formulated by former Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifl ey (1945-49). Chifl ey had a complex but ingenious vision that would inspire the engineering and construction of one of Australia’s largest civil projects, The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme.

Now more than 40 years on, the Snowy Hydro Scheme is still one of the most complex integrated water and hydro-electric power schemes in the world.

It took over 25 years and more than 10,000 workers to complete and was intended to divert, collect and store waters from the Murrumbidgee, Snowy and Tumut Rivers in south western NSW. This water would then be used to irrigate the western side

of the Great Dividing Range and generate hydro-electric power to homes and industries across NSW, VIC and ACT.

A fi rst for Australia, the Snowy Hydro Scheme demanded innovative feats of engineering. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, with 16 major dams, 7 major power stations (two underground), a pumping station, 145kms of inter-connected trans-mountain tunnels and 80kms of aqueducts.

The most signifi cant achievement was the development of the rockbolting technique, a safer and cheaper alternative to the concrete lining traditionally used to support rock in tunnel walls. An individual rockbolt was often used for pinning a piece of rock to the rock wall behind it. But a Snowy Hydro design team discovered that placing rockbolts in an interconnecting pattern across the roof of the tunnel or power station created a structural arch.

Over 40 years on, the Scheme is still vital both to local industry and our everyday lives. It generates 32 per cent of all renewable energy available to Australia’s eastern mainland grid, powers peak hour lighting across many of our country’s capital cities, and the water it diverts underwrites more than $3 billion in agricultural produce.

Even before the Snowy Hydro Scheme was completed, it was named as one of the civil engineering wonders of the modern world–quite the accolade for Chifl ey, who fi rst started out as a Bathurst-born engine driver.

16 Dams

07 Power stations

145 Kilometres of tunnels

80 Kilometres of aqueducts

Snapshot of the massive construction of the Snowy Mountain Hydro- Electric Scheme

Source: www.snowyhydro.com.au

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TheCrack

4 | REECE.COM.AU/OUTLET

The bathroom with the lot. Even a mineshaft.Bendigo woman, Ruth Black, recently discovered she had a lot more household storage space than she thought. Determined to work out why her bath wasn’t draining, she called in a local plumber to investigate.

When the tradesman looked under the house, he was shocked to fi nd a giant unfi lled mineshaft beneath Ms Black’s bathroom.

Funnily enough, Ms Black wasn’t overly surprised. She said ‘her family had purchased the land in the 1950s and it had previously been owned by the mines department’.

“I knew there was one, it was on the plans for the house,” she said. “When he told me it wasn’t fi lled, I got quite a fright. I think it’s terrifi c as long as it’s fi lled and safe,” she said.

Ms Black said her father had bought the land cheap because it had the mine on it and shale. She assumed the shale must have gradually settled or subsided over a period of time.

The mineshaft, which stretches about three metres wide “might have been like this for years,” she said. While it will be fi lled with concrete shortly, Ms Black said it has been ‘a good story to share with her friends’.

In The Pipeline Products for smarter plumbingPlumbing is changing and there’s a lot more to it than pipes, trenches and taps. In The Pipeline keeps you up-to-date on a wide range of products.

LiquiLock is a revolutionary new product that is sure to become every plumber’s new best friend. The super absorbent crystals can be added to the water in the pan, creating a solidifi ed gel substance. Then, when you disconnect the toilet, the gel stays in the pan, preventing any spillage. Now that’s clever.

Key features

• Allows the pan to be removed quickly with no spills or leaks

• Non-toxic and sets within 4 to 5 minutes

• Remains in a gel form, then dissolves when the toilet is reconnected and fl ushed

LiquiLock

To fi nd out more about LiquiLock, pop into your local branch and try it for yourself.

Supplier Products % Increase Date Effective

Accutherm International Hot water spares Various % 1 June 2015

Barben Industries Commercial washroom equipment Various % 1 June 2015

Collis Marketing Services Plumbing miscellaneous (QLD & NT only) Various % 1 June 2015

Consolidated Alloys Roofi ng & hardware products 3-12% 1 June 2015

Fabfi t Plastic pipe & fi ttings Various % 1 June 2015

Firequip Fire products Various % 1 June 2015

GD Watermark DWV and stormwater fi ttings (WA only) Up to 6% 1 June 2015

Gentec Australia Commercial tapware & equipment Various % 1 June 2015

ITW Proline Hardware products Up to 5% 1 June 2015

J&J Products Copper fi ttings Various % 1 June 2015

Marcliff Engineering Clips 3-7% 1 June 2015

Paltech Corporation Ducting fi ttings & accessories Various % 1 June 2015

Peter W Eldering Brassware Various % 1 June 2015

Plastec Plastic pipe & fi ttings Up to 5% 1 June 2015

Pool Systems Pool equipment Various % 1 June 2015

Renovant Stainless steel fi ttings Various % 1 June 2015

Repelec Hardware products Various % 1 June 2015

3M Purifi cation Water fi lters Various % 1 July 2015

Abey Clips & ventilation products Various % 1 July 2015

BlueScope Lysaght Roofi ng products Various % 1 July 2015

Cement Australia Cement Various % 1 July 2015

Metroll Wagga Roofi ng products (Wagga region only) 2.5-10% 1 July 2015

Pentair Water Irrigation products 3-6% 1 July 2015

Pride Industries Plumbing miscellaneous (WA only) Various % 1 July 2015

Reln Plastics Drainage products 3-5% 1 July 2015

ITW Proline Hardware products Up to 5% 1 July 2015

Stramit Industries Roofi ng products 2-9% 1 July 2015

Main Price Changes

Source: www.theage.com.au and www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au

More underground discoveriesVisit www.viralnova.com/apartment-secret-dungeon/ to read about a guy who moved into his new studio apartment, only to fi nd a trap door outside the bathroom leading him down a staircase to a secret dungeon.