Flow rates - can anyone advise?

[ilovevenice]

We are re-plumbing our new house and our plumber's asked what flow rate we need for shower, bath, bathroom basins (quite small) and kitchen (butler's) sink. Any suggestions for how we calculate this? I think he's asking as we've been really adamant all along that a strong shower was important to us! And thinking about it, we do want to be able to fill the bath/kitchen sink quickly (basins probably not so important). Does anyone understand flow rates and how to calculate them? I am feeling at a bit of a loss!

Your flow depends on your incoming main and internal pipe work. It's in litres per minute. To measure it fill a vessel with water and time how long it takes then multiply out. Eg if a 10 litre bucket takes 30 seconds to fill you have a flow rate of 20 litres per minute

If you have an outside tap use that to measure.

We have entirely new internal pipe work - I think the flow rate is high (it's not connected yet so can't check), and they need to put in flow inhibitors, hence why they've asked what we'd like them to aim for. Hmm, sounds as if I need to get a bucket and see how fast our current flow rates are...

Oh right then they are probably asking what the individual shower heads/valves/taps you've picked require

Yes, I think they're saying our choice of taps/shower will dictate the rate. It's all quite complicated!