Estimating Daily Domestic Hot-Water Use in North American Homes

Report Number

FSEC-PF-464-15

URL

http://publications.energyresearch.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/FSEC-PF-464-15.pdf

Keywords

Water Heating; Buildings; Domestic hot-water use; Energy consumption in buildings; Water heating efficiency; Occupant demographics; Climate impact on water heating

Abstract

Water heating in the U.S. is a major component of total energy consumption in buildings, accounting for approximately18% of total consumption in the residential sector (EIA 2010).While there are many factors influencing hot-water energy use(location, fuel, combustion and heating efficiency, and stand by losses), the actual volume of daily water to be heated is a fundamental quantity for any reasonable estimate of hot-water energy use. This study uses measured annual hot-water use in various North American climates to evaluate hot-water use in homes. The findings show that the quantity of hot-water use is correlated most closely to the mains water temperatures and the occupant demographics of the homes with 70% of the available measurement data explained when occupant demographics are well known. The study proposes a new methodology for estimating the quantities of hot-water use in homes as a function of climate location and occupancy demographics, segregating machine hot-water use, fixture hot-water use, and distribution system hot-water waste.

Date Published

6-30-2015

Identifiers

144

Notes

Presented at the 2015 ASHRAE Conference

This article or paper was published in ASHRAE Transactions, Volume 121, Part 2. Copyright © 2015 ASHRAE.

Subjects

Hot-water heating; Energy consumption; Buildings--Energy conservation; Demographic surveys; Climatic changes

Local Subjects

Buildings; Water Heating

Type

Text; Document

Collection

FSEC Energy Research Center® Collection

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Rights Statement

In Copyright