From smart showers that automatically adjust water temperature to toilets that automatically open and shut and clean themselves, smart tech is a growing feature of these spaces. Electrical systems also underpin many industrial plumbing processes like waste removal and flow control.

If you’re considering upskilling as a plumber to provide these products and services to your customer base, you may want to consider how circuit simulator software can become part of your planning and build phase.

Here we’ll look more into these tools and share some ways in which they can help.

What are circuit simulators and what do they do?

Circuit simulators are software programs that allow you to test the efficacy of an electrical system before it is put together. If you have an understanding of how the circuits for various components are made up, you can input the details into the program and check if the current will flow freely across the whole system and allow each item to work as intended.

They also allow for adaptation, so that you can create an optimal circuit design without committing time and money towards the production of something that will not work.

Circuit simulator applications in plumbing systems

• Smart bathrooms: Connected items such as smart thermostats and showers may need an element of connectivity between their circuits, although most work over wireless connections such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

• Pump and valve control: Industrial and manufacturing processes may use large amounts of water for cooling or other processes. Simulating the control of that water can aid automation and streamlining.

• Heat exchangers: If you require the heating or cooling of liquids, this helps do it at speed to match the required output of your manufacturing process.

These are just a handful of the electrical processes that may underpin plumbing systems and may benefit from circuit simulation providing guidance.

Benefits of circuit simulators in the plumbing industry

• Process optimisation: Bathroom design often means housing products – and associated electronics – in tight spaces or at uncommon angles. A circuit simulator can help highlight any issues this may create before you commit to a specific design and layout.

• Performance prediction: In commercial settings, getting a space ready for the launch of a business can put time strain on processes like installation and certification. Circuit simulation can aid this by removing human error from analysis and getting to the design stage faster.

• Design validation: It may be possible to partially validate a circuit’s performance before it is established – cutting down on the wait for compliance, but still guaranteeing better results.

• Sustainability: As circuits can be tested before they are produced, this helps to combat the issue of e-waste and the use of materials that may not be suitable for recycling.