An Efficient Retrofit for Commercial Hot Water on Demand

Conventional hot-water recirculation pumps—a standard appliance in hotels, multifamily residential buildings, and other commercial buildings with high demand for domestic hot water—were never supposed to save energy. These devices are installed to get hot water to the tap quickly to keep tenants and hotel guests happy. If they prevented some lukewarm water from going down the drain, that was a welcome side-effect. But high-speed delivery comes at a price: building owners end up wasting energy and money constantly reheating and pumping water—despite the fact that most building occupants need hot water only once or twice a day. The recirculation systems also act as radiators, their wasted heat being added to buildings even during cooling seasons.

D’Mand Circ, from Enovative Kontrol Systems, is the first (and so far only) system to offer the next logical step for commercial hot-water recirculation. Designed as an energy retrofit for buildings that already have a recirculation pump installed, the system uses technology developed by the U.S. Department of Energy and commercialized by Advanced Conservation Technology.