- Author
- Harris, J. E.
- Title
- Test Results and a Recommended Test Procedure for Heat Traps.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC
- Sponsor
- Department of Energy, Washington, DC
- Report
- NBSIR 84-2851, March 1984,
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900; Rush Service (Telephone Orders Only) 800-553-6847; Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
- water heaters; gas appliances; tests; heat loss; traps; performance evaluation
- Identifiers
- energy conservation; heat traps; procedures
- Abstract
- A series of standby loss tests was conducted on a 40 gallon gas water heater to determine the standby losses and the variability of those losses. Tests were run with both inlet and outlet plugged and insulated to determine the jacket losses, then tests were conducted with bare and insulated, vertical copper pipe, with and without heat traps. It was determined that the variability of the heat losses was large enough to conclude that the possible heat loss reduction by the use of heat traps could not be accurately detected and therefore the effectiveness of heat traps could not be accurately tested on gas water heaters. A recommended test procedure for heat traps was developed using a water heater simulator and then a number of tests were conducted with four different heat traps, in a variety of pipe sizes and material, bare and insulated, in vertical and horizontal orientations. It was recommended that the water heater simulator be used for any heat trap testing. It was also recommended that the heat trap credits currently given in the DOE water heater test procedure be dropped since any benefit of heat traps will be shown by the test results.