How can plumbing and mechanical engineers achieve even more from tankless water heaters? The answer is a new approach to sizing tankless for commercial applications; an approach that leverages data to right size hot water systems that are optimized to specific commercial properties and client needs. Rather than relying on the 80-year old assumptions often employed today, using real-world data allows plumbing engineers to help building owners and managers achieve new levels of safety, efficiency, and cost/space savings. 

It is imperative to optimally size domestic hot water (DHW) systems. When designing, it is often easy to simply select equipment that meets, for example, double or triple the design load in the name of safety and redundancy. However, as engineers, we are called to thread the needle between safety of design and the client’s actual needs. Thus, the goal of an effective sizing tool for an on-demand water heater is to select equipment with enough capacity to meet the peak demand of the building while incorporating an optimized factor of safety.