@Whale said:
…Have you considered an instantaneous electric system installed wholly within your Unit, just to supply hotwater to a shower during periods when the communal system is out-of-service? They’re < $200 and no O/C consent or SBL would then be necessary...
You could have your own electric water tank installed between the hot water coming into your unit and the cold water coming in. I assume you would have a tap you can close on the hot and cold water lines coming into the unit? If the tank were on the unit side of the two taps, you could close the tap to the building hot water system whenever it is coming through cold or there is no flow, and open the tap to your tank. Then you would have hot water to every hot water tap in the unit.
If the communal system is more trouble than it is worth to try to fix, you could suggest that the OC resolves to not fix it and all implement your system. It would cost individual units to install their own water tanks but they would have a commensurate saving on OC levies that don’t have to provide for repair and maintenance of the communal system and energy costs to heat the water.
Yet another option would be to replace the communal system with a solar hot water system on the roof. The cost to replace the old system would be recouped in energy cost savings over time and lower levies in the long term.
Solar on the roof could be combined with individual tanks in units in line and the solar system could be left without boosting for winter. When there has been ample sun the hot water in a unit’s tank would be replaced with hot at no cost to the unit owner or the OC. When there has been less sun the hot water would be replaced with not-quite-hot-enough water that does not take much boosting in individual tanks.
A side benefit also would be less water waste. Individuals would not need to run the taps for as long before the water comes through hot.