Eli5: How does a hotel always have hot water for every occupant?
In: 1975
We have an instantaneous system. Steam heats water REALLY hot, ~170 deg F. Another valve then mixes thst with colder water to get ~140 deg F water out of the boiler room. The water is **constantly circulated by pump**, there is hot water with 10′ of every guest room all of the time. 16 story building with hundreds of feet of piping.
We had to do a fixture count of the building when this system was designed. It was sized based on 956 “fixture units”, by the manufacturer. there are 372 guest rooms, one sink one shower in each, the rest is public space and back-of-house. it’s not sized to run every fixture, they have some factor they use as an educated guess. We have tested it, if you run hot water full blast in the sink and shower in about 30 rooms it is maxed out.
Fun fact: during conventions we have had water shortages. Everybody wakes up and showers at the same time, to go to the same event.
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