Whole house instant hot water

I have googled and have read what the sellers have to say about the Grundfos system but looking for comments from a user. Our kitchen sink is the farthest distance from the water heater in the garage and seems forever to get hot water. I'm going to do something to improve the situation not only for conservation but also our convenience. We are new to the house which is about ten years old.

Reply to
Charlie Tigh
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There are pumps made just for this situation. Reddy Heat is one, the box stores sell some as well. Mounts under the sink and pulls hot water and pushes it back into the cold side. Some shut off when the hot water arrives, some run on timers.

I have had Grundfos pump on my solar system. Worked fine.

Reply to
SQLit

Our office has a little water heater (just a few galons) under the sink, and a cold feed. It always seems to be hot and it doesn't waste a lot of 'hot' water as it comes along and warms up all the piping. I bet you could get a 5 galon one and would love it.

Dean

Reply to
dean

I have the chilipepper in my bathroom. I really like it compared to running what used to be hot water (and softened) down the drain for 40 seconds waiting for hot water. it still takes 40 seconds but the water goes back through the cold water line to the heater and shuts off when the water reaches what ever you have set the time to run to. It is a little loud and I believe the grundfos would be quiter as I used to have a grundos pump for another use and you couldn't tell it was on. But I didn't know they had a system when I bought the chilipepper.

YMMV

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Reply to
Rich

So saving gallons of water each time he needs hot water isn't conservation?

Sure. For me to do this all I'd have to do would be pull up my nice brick floors, cut through the concrete and rebar in the slab and knock the plaster off the CMU walls and punch holes in them too.

What a way to save money!

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Reply to
Wes Stewart

There is one in every group that has nothing better to do than make some kind of remark without knowing the situation, my pipes are buried in the floor or walls too so I have to take the next best solution.

Reply to
Charlie

That won't help much with convenience, given the pipe's low thermal mass and short time constant.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

No you're not!

You are doing it strictly for convenience and not for conservation.

For conservation AND convenience, heavily insulate the pipe from heater to faucet.

Reply to
Sherman

1st off he isn't wasting "gallons" of water each time. A 40ft run of 1/2 or even 3/4 pipe doesn't hold "gallons". I am very dubious about his 40sec figure. That is a long time.

2nd: For conservation you have to figure the cost of the 'waste' water against the heat loss through a constantly circulating, uninsulated pipe run. Hot water costs money to heat.

My bet is that the heat lost in the circulating system would cost more than the waste water so you would be right. He is doing it for convenience.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

I didn't intend to start an argument from my original post, just a simple question for some one who knew if the system worked as described. I just timed how long it took to get warm water, 90 seconds, that's without waiting till it got hot. I didn't measure how much water I used, It is like waiting for a pot of water to boil. Google-(whole house instant hot water) to see what I was talking about what the sellers claim. I just ordered one on e-bay and I'll let you know in the future. At 82 I try to do what ever I can to help conserve where ever possible and we do recycle etc. to help you young ones in the future. Thanks to all.

Reply to
Charlie

There is nothing wrong with spending money for comfort and convenience. Whether what you do is a net plus or minus for conservation is a complicated question which isn't necessary to get into here.

Yeah, I'm fortunate I guess in that my pipes are in the attic and I've insulated about half of the distance to the guest bath. For those who are designing new construction, please insulate the hot water lines from heater to faucet, including in the interior walls.

Reply to
Sherman

Good luck with the new faster hot water. I agree with your sentiments that you didn't want to start an on going debate but that is one of the things these groups tend to do. I once asked how to set the heat anticipatier on my old Honeywell round thermostat (in an HVAC group) thinking there would be one (1) answer. Well two weeks later after the snow settled I was told to put the heat in cycle and measure the current draw through a meter and set it to that....Simple enough but there was enough energy spent answering that one simple question as it would take to heat my house for a month so I should have invited them over to type their responses and I wouldn't have needed my furnace that month!!

Good luck, Rich

Reply to
Rich

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On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 17:49:33 -0500, "Rich" wrote:

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