Howdy.
My parents recently moved and i noticed that it takes FOREVER to get hot water to the kitchen. the kitchen hot water line from tank to fawcett is probably 80 ft long. it runs under the house in the crawl space. wraping it in insulation is possible but i dont think it will do much help right now as its summer and not at all cold under there. it may in the winter a bit.
i am wondering if anyone might have some suggestions. is there a tiny (i mean really tiny)HWT i can put under the sink, may be 1 gal or so?
would my best solution be to put a small tank in the crawl space right below? if i did that would i put it in the HW line or just feed off the cold like a normal tank? if its in the hot and they only use 1 or 2 gals it will pull from the main tank and that water will sit in the line, not get used and again they pay for heating a bunch of water they dont use.
i have looked at these chilli pepper things and they seem ok in a shower set up but who wants to stand there for 30 seconds just to get a cup of warm water? even though they do that now.
any suggestions would be welcome.
thanks in acvance
Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
Replies
Yeah, the best solution may be a 1-2 gallon electric water heater at the sink, fed from the "hot" line from the main heater. The units are small enough that you might be able to place one in the crawl.
Edited 9/2/2007 10:04 am by DanH
why do you seggest the hot line? isnt that doubling up heating water? only thing that uses much water is DW. how much do they use?Tmaxxx
Urban Workshop Ltd
Vancouver B.C.
cheers. Ill buy.
That way you have an essentially unlimited source of hot water. The small water heater (typically less than 2000 watts) can't keep the water hot if it's run for a couple of minutes, but by then hot water will reach the heater from the main tank,
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=93982.1
was a recent discussion of a product that addresses this. There are others out there, basically a pump which pulls hot water from the tank and back using the cold water line as a return. once the water at the hot tap gets warm, the pump stops. They claim energy savings from not wasting water waiting to get hot. Have a look.
Having never done it myself, I always wondered why or how the little waterheater under the sink trick really worked. Seems like you would get hot water immediatly and then get some not so hot water when the little heater ran out and then finally hot water from the main heater.
Maybe I think too much
You need a tank that's maybe 2-4x the volume of the pipe from the main heater. Then the cool water will mix with hot and provide reasonable hot water until the "real" hot water arrives.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin