The current water heater thread is very helpful and educational.
When we turn on the hot water in the kitchen, it takes a LONG time for the hot water to get to the faucet. The water heater is on the other end of the house. I've often thought about putting a small water heater under the house immediately beneath the kitchen sink. The idea of running two electric water heaters in a crawl space sounds expensive from an operational perspective.
As an alternate, I thought about getting a small tankless water heater, but they're expensive. Plus, there seem to be an increasing dissatisfaction with tankless units.
Another solution I considered was a recirculating pump that installs at the sink and, at the push of a button, pumps hot water into the cold water line until the water in the hot water line gets hot. This unit was demonstrated on "This Old House" a couple of years ago. There are differences in opinion as to whether that solution is a good one. A recirculating pump that keeps the hot water line hot all the time does not seem like an efficient solution.
Since I haven't looked at this problem in a while, is there another reasonable solution that I have not considered? I've come really close to biting the bullet and adding a second electric water heater in the crawl space. There is not enough room in the kitchen to add one inside the house.