I'm working on a building that is part of a larger facility. The domestic hot water is produced at a central plant. Does anyone have experience with this and if so, did you monitor the energy use for the domestic water heating? If not, does anyone know if this is required? In looking into this, the focus appears to be on the HVAC systems.
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Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5859 thumbs up
August 21, 2012 - 5:55 pm
In order to calibrate the model by each energy end use you must measure or be able to derive them all. Typically this means you collect some data (could be a spot measurement, short-term trend or permanent meter) on most systems. Since the energy use for DHW is not within the building it would seem to make sense to meter the incoming HW at least for a period of time.
The focus of M&V is on determining energy savings, not just related to HVAC systems.
Jonathan Mesik
Director of MEP EngineeringHolabird & Root, LLC
6 thumbs up
August 22, 2012 - 11:34 am
If it were only that simple, but with two connection points and hot water return, it actually means metering multiple water lines. But I do agree with your comment, it is about energy use, and there is energy there.
Thanks,
Marcus Sheffer
LEED Fellow7group / Energy Opportunities
LEEDuser Expert
5859 thumbs up
August 23, 2012 - 8:52 am
This brings up an important issue. M&V needs to be planned during design. If you will need to sub-meter it is always better to plan for it in the design/layout of the system. This usually enables the sub-metering to be done as cheaply as possible. Not sure if it would have helped in your specific situation Jonathan but reading your post triggered that thought.