Performance Monitoring of Residential Hot Water Distribution Systems

摘要

Current water distribution systems are designed such that users need to run the water forrnsome time to achieve the desired temperature, wasting energy and water in the process. Werndeveloped a wireless sensor network for large-scale, long time-series monitoring of residentialrnwater end use. Our system consists of flow meters connected to wireless motes transmitting datarnto a central “manager” mote, which in turn posts data to our server via the internet. This projectrnalso demonstrates a reliable and flexible data collection system that could be configured forrnvarious other forms of end use metering in buildings. The purpose of this study was to determinernwater and energy use and waste in hot water distribution systems in California residences. Werninstalled meters at every end use point and the water heater in 20 homes and collected 1s flowrnand temperature data over an 8 month period. For a typical shower and dishwasher events,rnapproximately half the energy is wasted. This relatively low efficiency highlights the importancernof further examining the energy and water waste in hot water distribution systems.