Development and validation of a drinking water temperature model in domestic drinking water supply systems

Abstract

Domestic drinking water supply systems (DDWSs) are the final step in the delivery of drinking water to consumers. Temperature is one of the rate-controlling parameters for many chemical and microbiological processes and is, therefore, considered as a surrogate parameter for water quality processes. In this study, a mathematical model is presented that predicts temperature dynamics of the drinking water in DDWSs. A full-scale DDWS resembling a conventional system was built and run according to one year of stochastic demands with a time step of 10 s. The drinking water temperature was measured at each point-of-use in the systems and the data-set was used for model validation. The temperature model adequately reproduced the temperature profiles, both in cold and hot water lines, in the full-scale DDWS. The model showed that inlet water temperature and ambient temperature have a large effect on the water temperature in the DDWSs.