Performance and Cost Analysis of Utilizing Potable Water as a Hydronic Medium in Multi-unit Residential Buildings

• Author / Creator

  Prybysh, Robert

• The use of potable water for hydronic purposes in buildings has been utilized for many years. Originally proposed as an energy- and cost-saving technique for single-family dwellings, it has evolved into systems that use potable water distribution to provide heating and cooling to multi-unit residential buildings of various sizes. Although the technique has been utilized for many years, the performance and efficiency, the effects of using potable water as a hydronic medium on water quality, and the long-term operational cost implications have yet to be explored through dedicated research. This has led to some skepticism of the technique, as well as claims regarding costs and performance which are not substantiated. This research establishes a technique to evaluate the performance of the entire building system in a manner that can be easily communicated to the owners and operators of the building. This involves establishing the building efficiency as steady state efficiency and a standby loss, a methodology previously presented for individual appliances, but not explored for both the heating and cooling performances of complete building systems. The impact on the palatability of the water is established using trained panelists who are provided with blind samples of water from multiple sources in accordance with established human evaluation techniques. After the panelist data is compiled, it is confirmed that utilizing potable water as a hydronic medium has no noticeable impact on the occupant perceptions of the water when the water in the system is changed out on a daily basis through occupant consumption. Finally, the issue of long-term operating costs is explored utilizing a novel technique that utilizes object-based simulation. The difficulty with conventional life cycle analysis methods is that they utilize set values for weather, utility costs, and maintenance, all of which are dynamic attributes with differing volatilities. The object-based simulation includes the weather distribution for the location in question paired with the historical rates of change in utilities and labor to establish a cumulative distribution function of the direct comparison of long-term costs between two systems. This allows the evaluator to not only establish the probability that one system will have a lower life cycle cost over another system, but also the degree of savings.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • potable
  • hydronic

• Graduation date

  Spring 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-vwv0-b061

• License

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