Non-residential water demand model validated with extensive measurements
Abstract. Existing guidelines related to the water demand of non-residential buildings are outdated and do not cover hot water demand for the appropriate selection of hot water devices. Moreover, they generally overestimate peak demand values required for the design of an efficient and reliable water system. Recently, a procedure was developed based on the end-use model SIMDEUM® to derive design rules for peak demand values of both cold and hot water during various time steps for several types and sizes of non-residential buildings, i.e. offices, hotels and nursing homes. In this paper, the design rules are validated with measurements of cold and hot water patterns on a per second base. The good correlation between the simulated patterns and the measured patterns indicates that the basis of the design rules, the SIMDEUM simulated standardised buildings, is solid. Moreover, the SIMDEUM based rules give a better prediction of the measured peak values for cold water flow than the existing guidelines. Furthermore, the new design rules can predict hot water use well. In this paper it is illustrated that the new design rules lead to reliable and improved designs of building installations and water heater capacity, resulting in more hygienic and economical installations.