Commercial Hot Water Systems Field Retrofit Characterization Study: Lab Testing Report

Frontier Energy, operator of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Food Service Technology Center, working in conjunction with Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and the Southern California Gas Company, performed a technical study of commercial hot water systems for the California Energy Commission’s Building Natural Gas Technology Program.

This project monitored gas and electric energy use and water consumption at all points on an existing hot water system at a full-service restaurant (FSR). The project similarly monitored the hot water system at an elementary school with emphasis placed on point-of-use monitoring in the dishroom. The existing hot water system at each site was then replaced with a more efficient, optimized system.

The scope of the field monitoring project included solicitation of test sites; monitoring of baseline gas, electricity, and water consumption and water pressure; replacement of site equipment; monitoring of the optimized system gas, electricity, and water consumption and water pressure; analysis of collected data and writing a report. The average daily results showed significant water and energy savings and an overall increase in the hot water delivery performance at both sites as well as an increase in the overall delivery efficiency at the FSR.