Energy performance of plastic pipes

This paper studies the power needed to circulate heating water in building networks using different plastic pipes manufactured in Jordan. A suitable s et up was designed and built for this purpose; the study included the effec t of the rate of flow and the water temperature. On the basis of the result s of pressure drop the pipes were divided as high quality and average quali ty pipes, prediction formulae for the friction factor of these two classes were derived, experimental results were compared with those predicted by th e formulae and with additional published results. The effect of the pipe pr essure drop on the pump's annual power consumption was illustrated using an actual application example. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.