The consumption of hot water in commercial buildings

This paper details the results of a recent British Gas field survey carried out to establish whether plant installed to provide hot water for catering and general services is usually oversized. Thirty-four sites were monitored: nine hotels, nine schools, seven restaurants, three large shops and six office blocks. Figures are presented for the catering consumption per meal served, and service (washing and cleaning) consumption per person for the various premises. As a guide to designers, curves are produced to size the boiler plant and hot water storage for buildings in the categories examined. These have been compared to the CIBS recommendations and to the size of plant actually installed. The overall findings from the survey have confirmed that current guidelines used by the building services industry tend to give larger plant sizes than necessary.