Water/Wastewater Peaking Factor for Schools

[seadooken]

I am doing a water and wastewater study for a rather large school campus. Its a public school campus for K - 12. Does anybody know of some published information for a peaking factor for a school? It just seems to reason that it would be somewhat higher than for a typical municipal system.

 

[jgailla]

I use a peaking factor of 6 for schools. I haven't seen any published information or data to back it up. An often used peaking factor is 4. In fact, I've met engineers who always use 4 no matter what the size or type of project it is. I figure a school will have a higher peak than an office or shopping mall. The oldest I've done is about 3 years old with no reported odor issues or other problems.

You could use the 10 States formula, which for a school of 1000 would yield 3.8. However, 10 States is based on residential populations which would have a lower peak than a school.

What peaking factor were you thinking of using?
What is the population of the school?
What are you allocating for per capita average daily use?

 

[seadooken]

Thanks for the response. Initially, I had planned on using 4 as well, but it just seems it should be higher. The population is about 3000 students. Its an existing school that we are doing some re-plumbing on. I have the average flows based on historic data, so the per-capita use is not really coming into play.

 

[jgailla]

seadooken,
Out of curiosity, how does the historic data compare with the per capita you would have to use otherwise? Is it higher or lower?

I would probably use 5 for a peaking factor in this case (10 states for 3000 capita + 50%=5.16). I would consider using a higher peak if there was a large discrepancy between the historic flows and what I would expect using per capita charts in the state code.

 

[bimr]

A peak flow 4 is adequate for a school with 1000 students.

See Piping Handbook by Nadyyar, Published by McGraw Hill.

Many schools are eliminating locker room showering facilities now anyway. Most new buildings are using low flow fixtures as well.

There is no need to be conservative.