By Timothy Allinson, P.E., Popov Engineers, Inc., Irvine, Calif.

Hot Water Circulation

ave you ever stood at a sink,

waiting for hot water and are
amazed at how long it takes to
arrive? The hot water at my own kitchen
sink used to take two minutes and twenty seconds to reach its destination. Thats
a long time when you are just standing
there, waiting for the hot water so that
you can wipe your babys messy face
with a warm towel rather than a chilly
one. I became so frustrated that I eventually added a local electric heater below
the sink (refer to my May 2003 column
in Plumbing Engineer). It is at these
times that one realizes the difference

Page 18/Plumbing Engineer

between good and bad plumbing design.

Hot water delivery is dictated by
code. Most codes require that hot water
dead-ends not exceed 50 feet without
some form of temperature maintenance.
This is often done with a circulation system, but also can be accomplished with
heat tracing cable. The reasons for temperature maintenance are twofold. First
is the practicality of the user not having
to wait too long for hot water, and second is for water conservation. A great
deal of water is wasted when you flow a
fixture waiting for hot water. Fifty feet
of three-quarter-inch copper tubing con-

tains 1.14 gallons of water that is wasted

in anticipation of the hot supply.
There are three primary considerations when designing a hot water circulation system, namely piping configuration, circulation pump flow rate and
pump head.
Piping Configuration
The general arrangement of the hot
water circulation system is dictated by
architecture. Along, narrow, single-story
building with fixtures scattered throughout the floor would probably have a sin-

Circle 012 on Reader Service Card

Copyright 2003 TMB Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

Continued on page 20

September 2003

Designers Guide
Continued from page 18

gle loop down and back the length of the

building. A tall hotel might have multiple, circulated risers, collected at their
tops with a single return riser. An office
building with typical core mens and
womens toilet rooms might have one
riser feeding the mens lavatories flowing
upward, with an offset at the top of the
building to feed the womens lavatories

flowing downward and back to the

heater.
There are two key elements in detailing the piping configuration. First, a
building with multiple hot water risers (or
loops) must be provided with a balancing
valve on each loop prior to connecting to
the hot water circulation main. This is
necessary to ensure that each loop will

have the proper amount of water circulating through it. There are valves sold
specifically for this purpose with calibrated markings on the valve handle.
Alternately, a throttling valve, such as a
globe valve, can be used for balancing.
However, a gate valve or ball valve does
not work well for balancing, as they do
not easily control low flow rates.
Second, hot water circulation must not
have inverted traps in the piping. The reason for this is the fact that air is released
from solution at an increasing rate with
temperature. Consequently, hot water
piping tends to become air-bound more
readily than cold water. If a hot water circulation leg becomes air-bound it can
disrupt the flow and prevent circulation.
One means of avoiding air in circulation
piping is to run the circulation loop on the
level below the top floor of plumbing fixtures. This allows trapped air to be
released from the fixtures when they are
used. If this approach is not possible,
high points in the circulation loop can be
vented with automatic air vent valves
(AVV).
Pump Flow Rate
The pump in a hot water circulation
system must be capable of moving water
through the system nearly as fast as it
cools down. The rate at which the water
cools is a function of the thickness of
insulation and the temperature differential. Table 1 indicates standard BTU loss
values for hot water piping with 1" fiberglass insulation and a 50-degree temperature differential (120-degree water in a
70-degree environment). These numbers
are fairly standard, but would have to be
modified for accuracy if a different insulation thickness or water temperature
were used.

Table 1
Pipe Size

1/2"
3/4"
1"
1-1/4"
1-1/2"
2"
2-1/2"
3"
4"

BTUH/ft

6
7
8
9
10
11
13
15
18

Circle 014 on Reader Service Card

Page 20/Plumbing Engineer

Copyright 2003 TMB Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

September 2003

With these BTU loss numbers known,

system losses can be determined by measuring the lengths of piping of various
sizes and multiplying them by the corresponding BTU loss value. For example,
the system in Figure 1 has 500' of threequarter-inch piping, 300' of 1" 200' of
11/4" and 400' of 11/2", so the total system heat loss rate is (500 x 7) + (300 x 8)
+ (200 x 9) + (400 x 10) or 11,700
BTUH. Next, pump flow rate can be
determined based on the allowable temperature drop. In this example the return
temperature is desired to be no less than
5 degrees less than system temperature.
Pump flow can be obtained from the
equation:
8.33 Q T= BTUH
8.33 x gpm x 60 min/hr x 5 deg. = 11,700
Therefore, the required flow rate is
about 5 gpm for this system. Each riser
would have 1 gpm circulated through it
to maintain temperature. Note that
increasing the temperature differential, if
this is acceptable, can reduce the flow
rate. Also, when measuring the system
piping, branch piping need not be included; only the portions of the system that
have circulated water should be included.

Figure 1
Pump Head
Lastly, the pump head needs to be calculated. The pump must be capable of
overcoming the friction through the furthest part of the system. To determine
this, the friction loss associated with the
circulated flow rate through the furthest
riser or loop must be calculated. This calculation can be tedious for a large sysPlumbing Engineer

Table 2
Size
3/4"
3/4"
3/4"
3/4"
3/4"
1"
1"
1-1/4"
1-1/2"
1-1/2"

gpm
1
2
3
4
5
2
5
3
4
5

loss/100'
0.46
1.5
3.2
5.1
7.6
0.46
2.5
0.35
0.23
0.42

tem. Done properly, it must include friction losses for each portion of the system
where the flow increases due to accumulation of each circulated loop. In our
example, the pressure loss through the
furthest loop would look like that which
is presented in Table 2.
Therefore, the minimum pump head
required is about 17' to circulate through
the furthest riser (on the left). Once it can
overcome this friction it will have sufficient pressure to circulate through the
other risers. Remember, you do not need
to include the friction through all of the
risers, only the furthest loop. Note that
friction factors were taken from a standard friction chart for
copper pipe. Also note
that hot water circulation pumps should be of
either bronze or stainless steel construction.
OtherConsiderations
Keep in mind that hot
water circulation is not
as exact a science as the
calculations
would
imply. It is no simple
task to balance a system
with exactly 1 gpm
flowing through each
riser. For this reason, it
is a good idea to put a
little fat into the circulation pump. As
illustrated in Table 2, I would probably
double the flow rate of the pump to
allow for errors in balancing the system.
There is nothing more frustrating than a
hot water circulation system that balances on paper but not in the field.
Nobody will thank you for saving them
1/25th of a horsepower on the circula-

Copyright 2003 TMB Publishing. All Rights Reserved.

length
100
50
50
50
50
100
200
200
200
200

Total
0.46
0.75
1.6
2.6
3.8
0.46
5
0.7
0.46
0.84
Total: 16.67

tion pump, when the user complaints of

no hot water are endless.
Also, be aware that some clients may
have hot water circulation requirements
that exceed code. I have worked on projects where the criteria stated hot water
delivery in 15 seconds rather than the
code-driven 50-foot maximum. For
three-quarter-inch piping and a 2.25
gpm faucet, 15 seconds translates to
about 25' of pipe.
Be aware that there is such a thing
called natural circulation. Some older
buildings were designed to take advantage of the fact that in a closed loop, hot
water rises and cold water falls. As a
result, if the hot water piping is generously sized, the hot water system will
tend to circulate naturally without a
pump. In order to achieve this, the piping must be sized for a maximum friction loss of about 1' per 100'. In todays
market, the cost of labor and material to
achieve this is impractical.

About the Author

Timothy Allinson is an associate with
Popov Engineers, Inc., in Irvine, Calif.
Prior to moving to the West Coast he
spent 15 years in New York City with the
firm of Jaros Baum & Bolles. Mr.
Allinson holds a BSME from Tufts
University and an MBA from New York
University. He is a professional engineer
licensed in both mechanical and fire pro tection engineering in various states. Mr.
Allinson is the president of the Orange
County Chapter of ASPE, past president
of the New York City Chapter and sits on
the board of the Society of American
Military Engineers, Orange County
Post.
September 2003/Page 21