I have a newer 40 gal natural gas hot water tank. It puts out about
45 minutes of hot water for showers set at about 130 degrees Farenheit. That equals about 1 shower for teenage daughter and 1/2 a shower for me--forget about anybody else in the house! I have a low flow showerhead (approx 2 gal/min). I read all the old postings, but nobody talked about setting up a shut-off valve on an electronic timer--there must be a way?Mr Fixit eh
Take your shower first ;-)
...Jim Thompson
Sure, there are solenoid valves available that can be easily hooked into a timer. Set it for a given time that counts down and WHAM! Cold water, shower over.
Used to have a teenaged daughter; I used to shut the hot water off myself after a time. After a few times she learned how to shower in a reasonable period of time or to wait until everyone else was done. Ed
Try coaching her on how to turn on the shower.... My stepson used to suck down all the hot water. I discovered that his way of turning on the shower was to _completely_ open the hot water faucet, then add cold water till it was back down to a comfortable level.
Also, from what you say, if the shower gives 45 minutes of hot water, and this equals a shower for your daughter, and half a shower for you, the numbers are saying your daughter is in the shower for 30 minutes???? I think I would tell her she's got _10 minutes_ till you turn off the hot water, and go stand by the valve.
YMMV Mike
Smack the stupid rebellious kid. Whatcha gonna do when she disobeys important rules?
Easy, give her 15 minutes and then go in the basement and turn off the hot water. You will only need to do it a couple of times.
If I had kids running the hot water to nothing, I'd pipe their shower to a separate, smaller hot water heater. It'd take care of itself.
What I would do is install a ball valve in their hot water supply - dis-allowing long hot showers. Or I'd install on of those commercial shower heads like the ones used in schools that allow something like a 1-cup per minute "mist" type flow.
Take the pleasure out of showering and the showers will get shorter.
Once again, we have folks looking for a technical solution to a parental problem. Tell the little jerk to "knock it off".
-- Herb Stein snipped-for-privacy@herbstein.com
|I have a newer 40 gal natural gas hot water tank. It puts out about |45 minutes of hot water for showers set at about 130 degrees |Farenheit. That equals about 1 shower for teenage daughter and 1/2 a |shower for me--forget about anybody else in the house! I have a low |flow showerhead (approx 2 gal/min). I read all the old postings, but |nobody talked about setting up a shut-off valve on an electronic |timer--there must be a way?
Turn the heat up on the heater, so you use less hot, more cold for the same temp. You can always turn it down in the summer. Rex in Fort Worth
I agree that this is a social, not a mechanical problem, but to reinforce the point, think about this: Sure there are timers that will activate a solenoid to shut off water. That is how your washing machine and dishwasher work. And the pay showers in campgrounds. But it requires electricity and access to the pipes. Of course you only want this timer on the shower, so you must have access to the pipes that supply water to the shower only. If you are lucky, you might have access to this in your basement. Otherwise, you will have to break down a wall by the shower to install the solenoid and provide the electric power. And you need a way to activate the timer. How would you do this? If you've spent thousands to install it in your bathroom, OK, you can place a button there, but otherwise you would have to get your daughter to go down to the basement and press a button to start the hot water before taking her shower. And then you would have to do the same thing when you before you took your shower.
It looks like the mechanical solution is too complicated. Perhaps a conversation with your daughter might make more sense. BTW your water utility might, for free (our does) provide you with a little waterproof timer that you put on your shower wall. Press the button and it will start an egg timer that will beep five minutes later, telling your daughter she should finish up.
Bad idea. Even with anti-scald valves, you can get hurt bad with extra hot water.
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