I love a nice hot shower.
At the quasi-DW’s house, she’s on a well. She has the hot water tank being fed by the water softener. The cold comes straight off the pump. The softener, hot water heater, and pressure tank are in the garage and the shower is at the other end of her 1500 sq. ft. ranch.
I have not been in the crawl space, but I hear the pipes are not insulated. I have no idea how they are routed. I have no idea what size they are.
Anyway one waits five minutes for the hot water to arrive at the shower. Then the water temperature goes up and down in about a four minute cycle. I alternately turn the valve hotter and colder. I’ve forbidden the use of the washer while I’m in the shower but that’s no help.
I think I saw a temperature regulating valve in Playboy years ago. Will it work? Can anyone recommend a supplier? Alternate idea’s are always welcome. I believe energy efficiency is worth the effort.
Replies
Time to get down into the crawl space and fix stuff.
BTW, what is a 'quasi-DW'???
It's kind of like two stereo-DW's.
I'm trying to remember how it goes, form follows function or function determines form...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Form follows Function. Mies van de Rohe.Though I have a book called 'Form follows Fiasco'.
She's a playboy bunnie with a temperature regulating valve
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
For some reason, I suspect if I'd get Holmes on Homes to go down there with me he'd say things like:
This is messed up bad.
They cut corners everywhere to save money.
We're just going to have to tear this place down and start over. :)Big Macs - 99 cents
Sounds like my old boss.
I'm with Piffin. The minute Playboy and temp regulation were mentioned, the point of the thread flew straight out the window.
Time to get your plumbing altered I think. Use the Playboy only if you have to.
You need a pressure balanced valve (for the shower), this should solve your cold/hot problem. The cold/hot thing is problably related to the well pump cycling on and off, and related pressure change. You may also need an air recharge in the pressure tank.
This won't solve your slow delivery of the hot stuff though. Only insulation and a recirculation pump will cure that.
l like using a loop system and insulating it, if there is access in the crawl space you can just re-plumb fumunda, 3/4 line off the water heater to the back shower first, then to any other shower/bath you may have before reducing to 1/2 then to every other hot riser under the house ending up back at the water heater.
wrap the pipe with insulation first then strap to joists over insulation every 4 feet. try to run the insulation up the risers as far as you can, this is where the heat loss comes from, if you can get inside walls for more insulation then even better. you can frequently run new risers through the floor depending on circumstances, its easy inside of a cabinet frinstance.
back at the water heater you route the return line through a ball valve, pump, ball valve and then up to the cold inlet line. return line ties in just downstrem of the new check valve you install on the cold inlet line, this keeps yer hot from being pumped back out the way the cold comes in.
if you notice the shower runs out of hot water to soon turn the ball valve ahead of pump (upstream side, this reduces speed of recirc system eliminating the running out of hot water and uses less electricity, the pump pumps less and uses less and it doesnt even know it is being restricted)
you may also want to add a timer in this mix, and when its time to get really carried away we can add a solar water heater to the mix. just let me know.
sorry should have been to da farmer dave.
just curious dave what do you grow, and where?
I run a cow-calf operation. I keep the moms and sell the kids. When I get a disgruntled employee, I change her name to Hamburger. I think a lot of Iowa and Nebraska beef starts here in the Missouri Ozarks, Mozarks.
Big Macs - 99 cents
that sounds pretty cool, i just found out from some guys i worked with last year that florida was right up at the top of cattle production, strange as it may sound.
i have an (my wifes) uncle that lives in clinton MO, beautiful country.
Where could I get a design for a solar water heater collector?
Heidi Hamburger, Freida FenceWrecker, and Dana DeepFreeze are all some of my previous employees. Heidi was the wildest cow, just look at her crossed eyed and off she'd go a running.
Big Macs - 99 cents
http://www.builditsolar.com is a website that has some information on that, and i saw some other stuff in here (breaktime) about just that subject and gave it a quick glance but didn't save it. i'm sorry i can't remember but i will keep my eye out for it and pass it along if i stumble across it.
i got to do some solar hot water stuff a long time ago when i worked for mc glashan's in santa barbara, but we didn't design the collectors, we just plumbed it in with the gas fired system using the auxilary solar tank to heat the gas tank, and then firing up the gas when it "called" for more hot water. this was an apartment complex (dorm) at UCSB in the 80's, what a great place to work.
and that reminds me of another story about some guys i worked with in central california (cattle in the foothills) and was talking at the bosses office with the boss and the old guy that started the boss in the trades.
these two "gentlemen" are very straight laced mind you, not like you and me, and the bosses mentor brings up how they know the guy that invented artificial insemination for cattle and how he is all rich now and everything and they built this custom home for him and yada yada. this conversation is going on and on, and i am being quiet but it is just killing me, finally i had to ask, in my best most serious tone of voice and inflection etc.....
how do they actually get the material from the male? because my wife is not working right now and i think she might be qualified to do this job. i mean let me tell you this girl knows what for and a grip,
well they explain to me, (in all seriousness) how they have a "simulated female cow" and they just apply some scent and then let nature take its course, they bring the bull in and ....... and they collect it.
it was so hard to keep a straight face with those guys let me tell you, it just killed me.
I think they have something called an electro-ejaculator too. Scrotal size is an indicator of a bull's fertility. They measure it on high end bulls.
A kit or a prefabricated solar collector would be interesting too.Big Macs - 99 cents
absolutely fascinating, it is amazing the things people come up with. i hope i don't offend, i are a city kid mostly, but i are desended of good arky stock. (my mom says warsh and mirra)
not having any knowledge about the process, (ignorant) and just the mental picture of it cracks me up. i in no way intend to make light of your industry. judging from your post it seemed you might think it was funny.
If the pump cycling is causing the problems and/or you have 2 different water systems, the cold water needs to come from the same source as the hot water. By that I mean run a "T" off the line just before it enters the water heater, and use that to seed the cold water side of the shower. (Nothing else).We had to do that back on the farm when we got cold water from a well and hot water from a cistern. You had to keep one hand on the shower handles to take a shower, or you'd get chilled then scalded as the pump pressure went up and down on the 2 different systems.
I've run out of sick days - I'm calling in dead.