Model of a System-Wide Domestic Hot-Water Distribution System in a Multi-Resident High-Rise Building

To reduce the environmental impact and cost, energy and water consumption of multi-resident buildings should be improved while ensuring resident comfort. Inefficient mixing of hot and cold-water streams and a non-optimal domestic hot-water (DHW) distribution system design can cause higher energy consumption, component failures, and dissatisfied residents. An OpenModelica (OM) system-wide model of a 14-story building consisting of a controlled-loop injection (CLI) device and a DHW distribution system is presented. The OM results are validated against field measurements at discreet locations within a single-zone closed-loop circuit to ensure the validity of time-varying temperature and flowrate. The study demonstrates that OM is a useful engineering tool to model single and multi-zone high-rise buildings that allows advanced analysis, including system-wide optimization, advanced on-demand controls, and energy and water-usage efficiencies.