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DOE OSTI · 1127143

Typical hot water draw patterns based on field data

Lutz, Jim·Melody, Moya
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Abstract

There is significant variation in hot water use and draw patterns among households. This report describes typical hot water use patterns in single-family residences in North America. We found that daily hot water use is highly variable both among residences and within the same residence. We compared the results of our analysis of the field data to the conditions and draw patterns established in the current U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure for residential water heaters. The results show a higher number of smaller draws at lower flow rates than used in the test procedure. The data from which the draw patterns were developed were obtained from 12 separate field studies. This report describes the ways in which we managed, cleaned, and analyzed the data and the results of our data analysis. After preparing the data, we used the complete data set to analyze inlet and outlet water temperatures. Then we divided the data into three clusters reflecting house configurations that demonstrated small, medium, or large median daily hot water use. We developed the three clusters partly to reflect efforts of the ASHRAE standard project committee (SPC) 118.2 to revise the test procedure for residential water heaters to incorporate a range of draw patterns. ASHRAE SPC 118.2 has identified the need to separately evaluate at least three, and perhaps as many as five, different water heater capacities. We analyzed the daily hot water use data within each cluster in terms of volume and number of hot water draws. The daily draw patterns in each cluster were characterized using distributions for volume of draws, duration of draws, time since previous draw, and flow rates.

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Lutz, Jim, Melody, Moya. 2012-11-01. Typical hot water draw patterns based on field data. https://doi.org/10.2172/1127143

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